Bee-otch of the Day: December 2019

Thursday, December 26, 2019

2019 BEE-OTCH OF THE YEAR!

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY!

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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**THE 2019 BEE-OTCH OF THE YEAR**

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For twenty years now, we've been handing out the Bee-otch of the Year to those who really, really deserve it. You know, the world's assholes.

Over the years, we've handed the honors to the likes of George W. Bush, Matt Hanlon and other pricks who did nothing but make people's lives miserable.

You know the drill: Monday through Thursday, we post the Bee-otch of the Day. On Sunday, we hand out the Bee-otch of the Week on our socials (the links are below) and every month, the Bee-otches of the Week are the nominees for the Bee-otch of the Month.

Since somebody was Bee-otch of the Month twice, we have eleven nominees this year. Now, we archive our past Bee-otches of the Day here on our Blogspot page. We base everything out of pageviews for each Bee-otch of the Day.

So, without further adieu....

11) OCTOBER: ELLEN DEGENERES
The beloved comedienne and daytime talk show queen raised eyebrows when she talked about unity on her program. This was after she received flak from her fellow members in the LGBTQ+ community over footage of her seen in a Dallas Cowboys skybox with former president George W. Bush. On her show, she proclaimed that people need to overlook political boundaries and focus on the good things in life. However, many - like myself - were infuriated since Bush ignored the warning signs of 9/11 and threw us into three fake wars in the process, killing over 7,000 innocent Americans and having our men and women in the Armed Forces come home with uncontrollable PTSD. And yet, she and Dubya get to relax in a luxury suite no average American can afford in a stadium named for a big, evil company. As George Carlin once said, "it's one big club, and you're not in it!"

10) JULY: SCOTT ADAMS
Adams, the creator of the long-running comic strip Dilbert made headlines this year when he used social media to try to take money from the victims of the mass shooting in Gilroy, CA. He took to Twitter to tell the victims to download WhenHub, an app that allows people to talk to experts for a fee. The problem? Adams gets a cut since he's a part owner of the app. Adams is a Drumpf supporter, so he probably wants a lot of shootings.

9) DECEMBER: LANGER GOKEY
Gokey is the long-time owner of several radio stations in northern Michigan, including geezer rock WKLT 97.5/98.9, 94.3/92.5 The Fox (which seems to be more of a Hot AC gold format these days) and ESPN 106.7/105.5. He's owned WKLT since 1984 and under his aegis, he turned it into a shitty station that nobody born after 1964 wants to listen to. He even bought popular CHR outlet 106.7 The Peak in the 1990s for $3 million and ran it into the ground with several horrid format switches. Now that station's off the air with management claiming financial problems. Serves them right, considering the scandals that wrecked that legendary 100,000-watt frequency. Now comes word that 97.5 WKLT is being sold to Midwestern Broadcasting (WTCM/WCCW/Z93) for a putrid $450,000. 98.9, however is not included in the sale because of Midwestern's ownership caps and might be spun off to a religious group. 94.3 Traverse City is being sold to Central Michigan University, though 92.5 Atlanta is not because they already own 91.7 in Alpena. With Black Diamond allegedly being the sole radio broadcaster in northern Michigan doing well, it makes me happy that I never got into the business.

8) SEPTEMBER: NBC
Now, this year's SNL has been doing quite well, especially with Eddie Murphy's beyond-hilarious hosting gig last weekend. The only person who seemed to hate it was Bill Cosby, who compared him to Stepin Fetchit. Of course, with him behind bars, he's got no room to talk. NBC got some mixed attention when they announced that comedian Shane Gillis, who was chosen to be a new cast member this season was fired because of racist comments he made on a podcast. Of course, SNL is a show that in the past allowed an Armenian guy (John Belushi) to play a Samurai, a Jewish guy (Adam Sandler) to play Cosby and yes, a white guy (Darrell Hammond) to play black preacher Jesse Jackson. I know, times have changed and SNL's cast is more diverse than ever. But, still...

7) NOVEMBER: KANYE WEST
Over a decade ago, Ye was a one of the best rappers out there. He stood up for his fans - especially while trashing George W. Bush during a telethon for Hurricane Katrina victims, proclaiming that he "doesn't care about black people" - and made awesome songs like "Flashing Lights" and "Gold Digger". Then came the moment he yanked the mic from Taylor Swift's hands. Let's not forget the fact that he married a woman who never worked a day in her life, also. Now, he's a Jebus freak who released a shitty Gospel Rap album that thankfully got outsold by Tool's new album its first week. And the fact that he appeared at Joel Osteen's fake megachurch in Houston is purely pathetic. Nothing like people profiting off of the man upstairs when there's people struggling to pay their bills.

6) MAY: PUREFLIX
Earlier this year, the faith-based movie studio released "Unplanned", a film based on Planned Parenthood whistleblower Abby Johnson. The movie was designed to scare people into thinking that PP's mission is to kill children for profit and even showed footage of abortions as they happen. One million of the movie's six million dollar budget came from crackhead-turned-pillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell. The same asshole who decided to buy up all of Laura Ingraham's ad time after advertisers dumped her show because of her disgusting remarks regarding the Parkland School shooting massacre. The moral of the story is that evangelicals will do anything to protect a bunch of cells. But when a baby is pooped out of a woman's body, it sucks to be them.

5) AUGUST: KID ROCK
Like Kanye, Kid Rock *used* to be a great singer and personality. To me, his Jump The Shark song was "All Summer Long", which reminds me of all the times people partied in northern Michigan and I either 1) wasn't invited or 2) treated like a gofer, running out into the pouring rain to get some loser's cigarettes. In recent years, KR's been a total douchebag, and this year had been no exception. In August, he made a vicious tweet against Taylor Swift, saying that she would suck dick for acting gigs. A few months later, he did the same thing with Oprah while he was severely intoxicated, butchering "Proud Mary" at his bar in Nashville. He can go ahead with his happy little Country tunes and asskissing of Drumpf, since there's now other artists who do better music than him.

4) JUNE: JOHN KRICFALUSI
Earlier this year, somebody uploaded a video onto YouTube and it quickly became one of the worst animated cartoons in history. "Cans Without Labels" was a pet project of John Kricfalusi, the creator of the legendary 1990s cartoon show Ren and Stimpy. The cartoon received funding on Kickstarter from 3,500 backers, who gave John K. over $136,000 to animate the ten minute short. Seven years after it was announced, the end result was revealed, as seen above. YouTubers were quick to badmouth the 'toon for its poor use of 3D imagery and unfunny and cringe-worthy storyline. The reviews were so bad that John K. himself pressured YouTube to delete the video ASAP. Recently, John finally uploaded his own copy onto YouTube, disabling comments. Several, including former John K. associate Bill Wray took to social media and talked about the fact that John's career is beyond tarnished at this point. When the MeToo movement was in full swing, it was revealed that in the 1990s at the peak of R&S's success, he had sexual relationships with two 16-year-old girls who would later become his animators. One of the girls even admitted to having an abortion and ended up leaving the animation business with PTSD. Kricfalusi apologized, claiming that his battles with ADHD and being fired from Nickelodeon had an effect on his well-being. Yes, even the creators of our childhood aren't safe from the MeToo movement.

3)APRIL: JOHN GRAY
One of the worst problems with organized religion is of course, greed. There's too many wealthy preachers who live in mega mansions and fly around in jet planes because as one televangelist once put it, "the devil rides in coach!" Oh, please. Well, John Gray made headlines late last year when he gave his wife a $200,000 Lamborghini Urus SUV for their wedding anniversary. Because of the controversy, he pointed out that he earned the money from his various incomes, including a show on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Well, in April, Gray announced to his flock that due to his church's roof leaking, he needed virtually that same amount of money to patch up the roof. And why does your wife need a Lambo? Sorry, but the last time I heard, Jesus was all about curing the sick and feeding the poor, not giving your wife a luxury item the average person cannot afford.

2) MARCH: WASHINGTON POST
Now, I'll give Gretchen Whitmer the benefit of the doubt that she's not pRick Snyder, our water-hating ex-governor of Michigan. However, she got herself a kick in the ass from me because she proposed raising Michigan's gas taxes to help fulfill her promise of fixing the damn roads. Of course, the taxes would fall on the burden of those who drive huge distances to work, especially those who live in rural areas where gas tends to be a little more expensive. Let's not forget those who live in food deserts where the nearest supermarket is over 10 miles away. Sadly, WaPo thought this was a great idea in an editorial they published. Guess who owns that paper? Why, it's Amazon's Jeff Bezos, who doesn't pay any taxes on the $150 billion he has. Ya know, this is what happens when we allow the wealthy to control the media. They tell you that we all need to pay a bigger tax on something the poor and rich both use. The reality is that Michigan now has something that can help fix the damn roads: RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA! It's expected that the taxes generated from pot sales next year could be over $200 million. Now, that'll fix the damn roads!

....AND THE 2019 BEE-OTCH OF THE YEAR IS....

DONALD TRUMP!
There were five articles that got Drump BOTY:
1.8
1.23
2.20
2.26
2.28

As a matter of fact, the one from 1.8 was one of the most-viewed Bee-otch of the Day articles... EVER!

You know, it will be a happy day when he leaves office. I don't care if he's removed or if he's voted out of office. Let's remember that he wasn't the popular candidate in 2016. He's in the White House because of a fucked-up system that reared its ugly head that year. Because of what he's done in office, he might be BOTY for years to come.

And there you have it. See you in 2020!

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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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Thursday, December 19, 2019

2019 Bee-otch of the Decade (and some heroes, too!)

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY!

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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And now, a Special Presentation: The Bee-otch of the Decade!

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A week from Wednesday, we start not just a new year, but a new decade.

We're starting with a fresh clean slate that's been wiped down with a cleaning agent so strong that the hazmat suit we wore melted. The 10s were a better decade than the 00s and 90s were for me, I'll admit. Yes, I had my obstacles, but since I'm older, I'm definitely a little wiser.

A decade ago, I did something called "Bee-otch of the Decade". Since he was Bee-otch of the Year throughout most of the 00s, it should have gone to George W. Bush. Well, I had another idea. I gave it to a group of people who were easily fooled. A group who played a role as to why when I wrote BOTDecade, we were going through one of the worst economies of all time. That group of people was us.

IIRC, I wrote that we were to blame for our own problems since we were easily scared into re-electing Dubya in 2004. I also wrote that instead of supporting the small guy, we support billionaires. In other words, instead of shopping at the family-owned supermarket down the street, we drive 20 miles to a Walmart where milk is 99 cents. Now, many small towns no longer have a grocery store, but rather a Dollar General, which sells some groceries, but mainly processed crap and no meats or produce.

I also mentioned that maybe if we all voted for Al Gore in 2000, we wouldn't have had to deal with Bush and his cronies. Well, my opinion on that changed in 2016 when the Democrats screwed over Bernie Sanders and gave Hillary Clinton their pick for president. There, we all learned that even though she won the election fair and square, the Electoral College told a whole different story.

So who is most-deserving of being the Bee-otch of the Decade? Is it Drumpf? Yes, he's now impeached and if the Senate had a brain, he'd be thrown in prison. But it ain't him. How about Bill Cosby? Those whose careers ended because of the MeToo movement? The FCC? Matt Hanlon? John Balyo?

Oddly enough, it ain't any of these people.

So, who is the Bee-otch of the Decade? Well, I look at it this way. Since 2010, my life has gotten somewhat better. I had a shaky start with a car accident that forced me to get a car that had a myriad of problems. I learned the hard way that rental cars make shitty used cars. In just the first year, I had THOUSANDS of dollars of repairs, all caused by the ignorance of the place I bought the car (Courtesy Dodge of Grand Rapids) and the assholes who drove my now-former car.

Because of all this, I ended up with several monthly credit card bills. With the lack of raises from my now-former boss, I was forced to donate plasma several times per week and I had to give up my cable. Meanwhile, my ex-boss was going on several vacations and bitching that our industry was "dying".

Thankfully, my former boss retired on New Years Eve, 2012. Eight months later, I had my first raise in almost a decade. Almost every year since, I've gotten a $1 raise. Oh, and a few months ago, my company had $800,000 in sales.

And oddly enough, my ex-boss ain't the Bee-otch of the Decade. Neither is Courtesy Dodge, Berger Chevrolet (their service department is a JOKE and I learned the hard way) or the assholes who drove my now-former car before I bought it.

You see, the economy has improved a lot since Bush left the White House a decade ago. But, there's still too much work to be done. The minimum wage has not gone up in a decade and the price of housing has skyrocketed. Restaurants are closing because nobody can afford to work at one, especially when the pay's only $10 per hour.

One of the biggest problems for me is I'm pushing 40 and I'm still single. And guess what? I'm starting to know exactly why. I'm on several dating sites and most of the women are either 1) working two jobs or 2) shoving their tits and ass in front of their cellphone camera begging for a sugar daddy. This past year, I went out with a woman who had two jobs and was working seven days a week. Five days were spent at a publisher and her weekends were spent at a popular restaurant in their kitchen. We split up simply because she no longer had time for me and had to focus on her life.

So many young people are simply struggling. They have college degrees and jobs that require them, but the pay sucks. I come from a family of teachers and they've all retired or died. I dreamed of being a teacher as a kid, and I'm glad I never became one. When I hear of kids going to the same food pantries their own teachers go to, I shake my head. It simply sends the wrong message to them.

And because too many young adults have to have second jobs or in my old case, have a needle shoved into my left arm and make $50 extra per week, they can't have kids. And as a result, for the first time since the Baby Boom of the mid-20th century, the world's population is expected to dwindle. It's totally heartbreaking also that too many children go to bed hungry because their parents already try too hard to earn a living. With Drumpf cutting SNAP benefits recently and Rethugs lumping those who work and those on welfare onto the same EBT card, it creates poor shaming at the grocery store.

Without a doubt, there's somebody out there deserving to be the BOTDecade and it's another group. It's not us, though. Many of us were still fooled, especially those who voted for Drumpf in 2016 simply because he acted more liberal than Hillary. Yes, Drumpf did ban bump stocks, made animal cruelty illegal and supported those with autism, though he made vile comments regarding Greta Thunberg recently.

The people deserving of the Bee-otch of the Decade honor are the group of people who got us into this mess in the first place. They are the group of people who had a great and privileged life growing up because their parents worked hard. However, they grew up watching some stupid monkey movies as children and when its star, Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, they voted him in. Hey, they didn't want some stuffy old peanut farmer in the White House anymore! Because of this group of people, since 1980, we really haven't had a true progressive in the White House. Yes, we had Clinton, but he fucked up the world of broadcasting with Telecom 96 and let's not forget NAFTA. Yes, he left the White House without a deficit, but he was also a man who couldn't keep it in his pants. Obama was much better and helped rebuild America's economy. But Obamacare has proven to be not a true fix-all for our nation's healthcare problems. Then again, he was stuck throughout his presidency with a House loaded bought politicians. And sadly, part of that aforementioned group elected them in. Same with the Senate and the idiots vowing to keep Drumpf from being kicked out of the White House.

The Bee-otches of the Decade are the people like my former instructor who told me that I would be making $20 per hour in five years only to enter an economy in the 00s with few jobs and low pay. They are the people who call me an "$8 per hour loser" and called the place I lived a "ghetto" because they're the ones who voted for Reagan and lived in a nice, big house growing up. They're the ones who simply sat at the big table and told my generation to run out to the car in the pouring rain to grab their cigarettes.

Without mincing my words, I'll say this fair and square: the Bee-otches of the Decade are... THE BABY BOOMERS!

OK, so not all Boomers voted Republican and some are quite intelligent. But as a young teen growing up in northern Michigan, I felt like they were out to control me like a puppet. I looked at the people my age in the Detroit and Grand Rapids areas and they were spoiled. They got to go to rock concerts all the time and had better radio stations. Me? We were lucky to get one good concert per year and we got stuck with the piece of shit known as KLT. And like I mentioned earlier this week, the owners bought the station most-popular with teens of the 90s, 106.7 The Peak for $3 million and ran it into the ground.

Look, I know it's wrong to lump all those born between 1947 to 1964 into the same group. It's like calling all black folks the N-word. Hell, a lot of folks up north are racist because they grew up in Detroit and all they heard about black people was bad. Let me tell you this: I once worked at a popular restaurant near Traverse City. The majority of the people I worked with were teens my age. However, they hired somebody who should have NEVER have been close to us at all. He lived in a small cabin and drove a crappy old car, the inner workings of a child molester. He was creepy, period. Just several years prior to working with us, he was charged with performing oral sex with a six-year-old boy. A few years after I moved to Grand Rapids, he was busted again for attempting to rape an 11-year-old boy and finally put on the Sex Offender List.

And the owners of that establishment? Boomers. And their son was in his late 20s when he started dating a girl I went to school with who was I think 14.

And that creepy guy who raped young boys? White. And a Boomer, too.

The sad thing about Boomers is this: The 10s might have been their last decade where they showed true power. The reason why is because the generation that has begat them, the Xs, Ys and Zs have outnumbered them. They are the true Heroes of the Decade. They will stand in the next decade and wipe clean the shit the Boomers left for them. And at the end of the day, we will shine. If Bernie Sanders gets fucked out of the presidency again in 2020, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can and will run in 2024. She'll get the job done while people like Rush Limbaugh and all the losers on Faux Propaganda Channel will start to croak. Same with everybody on AM talk radio.

My fellow Gen-X-Y-Zers, assemble! The 20s will be your decade. It's time to take your country back. It's time to tax the wealthy, make healthcare affordable and kill college debt. It's time to fall in love again. Put your genitalia to good use and create those who will wipe my ass when I get broken and senile. Also, let's work hard to eliminate climate change. Greta Thunberg is right! It's time we get a leader who will listen to her and not discount her simply because she's autistic.

Do this, and 2029 won't become another 1929.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

12.18.19 Bee-otch of the Day: Donald Trump

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.
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Name: Donald Trump
Age: 73
Occupation: hopefully soon a jailbird
Last Seen: Battle Creek, MI
Bee-otched For: IMPEACHED

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Well, I thought I did the last BOTD of the decade yesterday, but guess what? Even more good news to share:

For only the third time in American history, a U.S. president has been impeached, and it's DRUMPF.

Congress tonight voted on the two articles of impeachment, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. They have felt that he used his power to get dirt on presidential candidate Joe Biden from Ukraine. Drumpf is known for being allies with our enemies, which puts our nation's security at risk.

And guess where he was tonight.... BATTLE CREEK! Yup, he and veep Mike Pence were there while Drumpf was getting his ass handed to him back in DC. I naturally didn't watch most of Drumpf's speech, but it was fun seeing history being made while he was blabbing about our bloated military in a town loaded with junkies and a mall doing so poorly that they can no longer support a Hot Topic.

I shook my head looking at the goobers behind him; one of them was wearing a shirt that read "Ebels", referring to a well-known, Jebus freak-owned general store in a tiny hick town up north called Falmouth. Another was a black woman who wore a shirt proclaiming that Congress should be impeached. Sorry, not sorry, but there's a name for that, and it's the same name as a well-known brand of pancake syrup.

Now, it's up to the Senate - sadly mostly Rethugs - to decide whether or not Drumpf should be thrown out of office. Sadly, I think not, but only time can indeed tell.

With my ex-asshole preacher blasting his brains out, the assholes in northern Michigan who own the POS known as WKLT going out of business and now, Drumpf being impeached, this is turning out to be a great ending to 2019. I hope 2020 begins with the Orange Shitgibbon being thrown in prison! Too bad the establishment Dems brought this on themselves after what they did to Bernie in 2016. But with what's going on now, they better not fuck it up again.

Why? Because Mike Pence is still an asshole.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

12.17.19 Bee-otch of the Day: Langer Gokey

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY!

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: William Langer Gokey
Age: 69
Occupation: owner, Northern Bottling Company, Northern Broadcast
Last Seen: Minot, ND
Bee-otched For: selling his stations... 20 years too late

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In 1986, when I was five, my grandparents moved from their longtime home of Troy, near Detroit to a cozy, three-story home overlooking Elk Lake by Traverse City.

One of the fond memories I had driving around with my grandparents was that they had a favorite radio station: 96.3 WMBN out of Petoskey. In the 80s, the station played mostly instrumental easy listening music. Needless to say, it sucked. To me, it was old music for old people.

However, in 1989, WMBN's owner, Ken MacDonald died from a heart attack at 67. Per his wishes, WMBN changed its format to Soft AC as Lite 96.3. Well, my grandparents didn't care for the new changes, so they found solace in Unforgettable 1310 WCCW out of Traverse City. They played the music from the 40s and 50s that Grandpa and Grandma loved. Well, my grandparents moved to Florida and in 2001, my Grandfather died.

Not long after Grandpa passed, I remembered driving my Grandma around Traverse City. I turned it to 1310 and showed her that it had flipped to ESPN Sports. My Grandma's response: "we're dying off!"

In 2001, my Grandmother was 72. She died from Dementia last year, almost two months after her 89th birthday.

The sad thing is that today's current 72-year-old was born in 1947. They grew up with AM radio, 8-tracks, vinyl and American Bandstand. While vinyl sales are now overpowering CDs, very few AM stations play music (and those who do might have an FM translator) and Bandstand had its last Spotlight Dance over 30 years ago. It just couldn't compete with MTV, and even they hardly run music videos anymore.

Now, terrestrial radio is quickly becoming just like AB with many in the Generation X, Y and Z brackets long-abandoning it for Spotify and Pandora. Radio ratings are down across the board and revenue is down as well.

The major reason why I started this blog and website was because 20 years ago, I was in Radio Hell. The rest of my family was blessed to live in Detroit and Grand Rapids, two cities with way better rock choices than what we had up north. Detroiters had WRIF and 89X while Grand Rapids had WKLQ. Northern Michigan's new rock choices were WKLT - which was too heavy on 1970s butt rock - and The Zone, which was heavy on Lilith Fair and wuss music. KLT should have been the WRIF of the north, but that was not to be.

In 1984, a family from North Dakota, the Gokeys, who made their fortune in running a successful Pepsi bottling company bought WKLT, which at the time was known as 98 Rock. According to people I've talked to, they were a decent station back in the day. But then, the Gokeys made an idiotic decision and hired a jerkoff named Richard Dills to manage their stations. I've talked with a guy who worked at KLT during this time, and he told me that the reason why KLT had long been a shitty station was because Dills wanted it to be that way. He believed that most people in northern Michigan were white trash, which explained why KLT has long been heavy on bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey, Styx and Foreigner. While bands like KoRn, Rage Against the Machine, Tool (whose lead singer, Maynard Keenan grew up in northern Michigan) and Metallica were ruling rock in the 1990s, KLT avoided them like the plague (as a matter of fact, "Enter Sandman" was pretty much the only Metallica song KLT ever played up until 2000). Simply put, station management passed those bands as "kids music". During the late 90s, the only radio station that targeted my generation was 106.7 The Peak.

Which happened to be a station the Gokeys blew up.

When the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed, radio stations up north were being sold at a rabbit's pace. The Gokeys bought WKPK 106.7 The Peak and sister station 96.7 WMLQ in Rogers City - later spun off and is now part of a simulcast of Country WATZ 99.3 in Alpena - for $3 million from station founder John DeGroot. It was always neck-and-neck with fellow CHR stalwart 106 KHQ, which was more-adult-friendly and played more 80s music as opposed to the more-rhythmic Peak. However, according to a former Peak DJ, the Gokeys were waiting for a ratings dip for The Peak. Why? So they could flip it to Adult Contemporary.

You see, the Gokeys had made it apparent that they were not in the business of entertaining those born after the Baby Boom. KLT was heavy on geezer rock, they had an underperforming country station in The Bee and now, they wanted to flip 106.7's monstrous 100,000-watt signal to shitty soccer mom music. Well, a lightning strike screwed up 106.7's transmitter and ratings did go down. In 2000, The Peak began its transition to WSRT: Soft Rock and Great Talk since the station aired the syndicated Bob and Sheri Show mornings and Delilah at night. The ratings continued to drop, though they did have a slight bump in one ratings book thanks to their idiot programming director, Todd Martin sending Arbitron a bunch of fake ratings diaries. And yes, he was caught and was fired as a result.

Of course, 106.7 continued to have problems, even afterward. Even a rebranding as "You FM" in 2010 didn't help matters. The station flipped to a talk format that was a mix of left and right-winged talkers. Too bad they originally carried Dr. Laura, who pissed off everybody when she unleashed a string of racial slurs some years ago, ending her terrestrial radio career. In 2012, WSRT flipped to ESPN, its longest-serving format since dumping The Peak many years ago.

The problem the Gokeys had was simple: they alienated their younger audiences years ago and as they grew up, they found other stations to listen to, either on terrestrial or internet radio. In recent years, Rock 105 and 95-5 has been gaining up on KLT's ass while the Gokey's two other stations, the aforementioned ESPN Up North and Classic Hits 94.3/92.5 The Fox (the former Bee) are both under a two share in the ratings. Not only that, but the fact that they've had a long history of firing popular DJs from their stations all in the name of money. Just ask Tim Murphy and Steve "Omelette" Normandin.

Now, the Gokeys are selling off their stations. Not as a cluster, but one by one. Allegedly, they wanted $9 million for all six of their stations, but nobody was willing to pay the price for all six of them. It was also a huge reason why Blarney Stone Broadcasting, the owners of Q100 and 101.1 WGRY balked on trying to buy the stations several years ago.

All we know is that 94.3 - legally WFCX Leland/Traverse City - is being sold to Central Michigan University. CMU has long-wanted a full-power signal in the Grand Traverse region, an area that's been long-loyal to Interlochen Public Radio. However, 92.5 WFDX Atlanta/Alpena/Petoskey is not in the deal because CMU already has 91.7 WCML Alpena. It's expected that 92.5 will fall silent once the deal goes through. For now, The Fox is still on the air.

Last week, 106.7 WSRT Gaylord and 105.5 WSRJ Honor both signed off the air. The fact that the Gokeys paid $3 million for this station only to run it well into the ground is nothing short of laughable.

But now, there's good 'ol KLT. Word has it that Midwestern Broadcasting - which already owns WTCM, WCCW and Z93 - is buying only 97.5 and not 98.9 because of FCC ownership caps. Speculation has it that 98.9 - WKLZ Petoskey - will be sold to a religious broadcaster. Bear in mind that when Blarney Stone was trying to buy out the Gokeys that they were planning to sell 106.7 to Baraga Radio, a Catholic broadcaster. Now that Baraga's been sold to Relevant Radio, that has changed no matter how you look at it. It's also noted that Midwestern traded off some of their stations in the past to Good News Media, which owns WLJN 89.9 out of Traverse City. In 1982, they donated the old frequency of WTCM, 1400 AM to Good News. They've also donated 1370 Cadillac and 107.9 Charlevoix to GNM as well.

Already, changes are being made at both KLT and The Fox. Speculation has it that most of the sales staff has been broomed out and so have been a few jocks. Granted, being the holidays, I should hand the Gokeys BOTD for firing people. But since one of those was former KLT afternoon jock Tom Devitt, I'll make an exception. After the shit that he put Smitty (now mornings on Classic Rocker The Bear), me and others through, all I have to say is good riddance. Asshole bombed as the morning man on The Zone, he couldn't make it at a shithole station in Caro, got canned again at The Bear and now KLT. Maybe if he had an original bone in his body, he'd be retained.

I expect a more-formal announcement in the first quarter of 2020, or maybe sooner. After Langer sells his stations, there will now be three major radio operators with some sort of super focus. Midwestern will have the Baby Boomers with Country (WTCM-103.5/93.5), Conservative Talk (WTCM 580), Oldies (WCCW 1310), Classic Hits (WCCW 107.5) and (MAYBE) Classic Rock (KLT) with CHR Z93 as a hanger-on, Black Diamond will have a wall of men with Rock 105, The Bear and Big Country 102.9 and MacDonald-Garber will have women with KHQ and Lite 96, though they have other formats like Adult Hits (104.5 Bob FM), Sports (93.7 WKAD Cadillac/1340 WMBN Petoskey) and Country out of Cadillac (96.7 The Bull). But as it stands, there's going to be several silent stations in northern Michigan both now and in the near future.

The sad situation is that to me, radio is like Kmart. As a kid, your parents loved it because they were cheap. But you hated them because while all the cool kids at school wore Reebok Pumps and Nike Air Jordans, you got stuck with some sweatshop POS that broke apart on you three months after mommy bought them for you. Kmart had every chance to redeem themselves, but thanks to Eddie Lampert, their stores got run down while you went elsewhere to shop. Look at Kmart now: at the beginning of 2020, they will be down to just 70 locations. I expect by this time next year, Kmart - and maybe Sears - will be long gone.

In the 1990s, the Gokeys simply told my generation to fuck off by making KLT a haven for Boomers. They should have evolved like WRIF, but they didn't. Instead, they told me to listen to The Peak, which saturated their playlist with shitty boy bands and mindless pop sluts who probably had to suck 20 record exec cocks to get a hit record. But they killed that station. Look at WRIF now: they are #2 in the Detroit radio ratings while dying KLT is now tied with the growing Rock 105/95-5. I'm pushing 40 and I hate KLT with a passion, Tom Devitt or not. When their current listeners die off, they might as well shut down since I don't associate them with kick-ass rock music. Sorry, but a radio station that still probably plays "Carry On Wayward Son" ten times per day after all these years has lost me for life.

One more thing: with all the firings, movers and shakers up north radio-wise, I'm forever thankful I never got into radio. I wanted to as a kid, but not with the fact that it's an unstable job with no future. I'll betcha that if I started a weekly podcast, I might actually make more money than a lot of DJs. Just saying. I've been at my current job for 17 years and business is pretty good. Yes, I've had my struggles with former management, but now that I'm making twice than what I was making a decade ago, life is good.

With Langer being the last Bee-otch of the Day this year and this decade, I only have two words to say:

Good riddance.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Monday, December 16, 2019

12.16.19 Bee-otches of the Day: American Family Association

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: American Family Association
Age: 42
Occupation: hate group
Last Seen: Tupelo, MS
Bee-otched For: launching one million lies

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Sadly, some people just can't accept change.

They can't accept that there's more than three channels on our TVs and the programming at 8pm isn't always "family friendly" in their feeble minds. They have a hard time grasping the fact that TV channels like The Family Channel and PAX have all gone by the wayside.

But, hey! There's still The Hallmark Channel!

This time of year, Hallmark shows countless holiday films, and the ratings are pretty good: 50 million viewers, which is pretty good for cable TV. However, some of their more-conservative viewers are pissed over a commercial seen over their network.

The ad is for Zola.com, a wedding planning website. The commercial shows a lesbian couple's wedding and they kiss at the end of the ad. Hallmark is also showing several other ads for Zola showing heterosexual weddings.

Over the weekend, Hallmark pulled the commercials for Zola that showed the lesbian weddings to please the conservative Christian group One Million Moms. However, amid outcry from gay celebrities and LGBTQ+ supporters like Ellen DeGeneres and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, they reinstated the commercials this morning.

One Million Moms is a branch of the American Family Association, an ultra-right-winged motley crew of bigots that is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was founded in 1977 by Methodist preacher Donald Wildmon because he felt that the entertainment industry had become a cesspool for indecency. One of his first targets was the hit ABC sitcom Three's Company because it was about a man who had two female roommates and one of the girls, Suzanne Somers kept jumping up and down, allowing her tits to bounce uncontrollably. Another ABC hit, Soap was attacked by Wildmon for having an openly gay character, Jodie Dallas, played by a young Billy Crystal.

Over the years, the AFA pressured grocery stores to stop selling Playboy and to put blinders over Cosmopolitan. Here in Michigan, Bill Johnson, who ran a branch of the AFA put his focus on getting rid of Howard Stern. Allegedly, he paid elderly folks and others on fixed incomes to write the same letter over and over again to his sponsors. One of those sponsors called Stern and told him over the air that one of the letters looked like it was written with somebody's feet. They also claimed that they got the same letter from the same person. They called him up and he told them that Bill was paying him 10 cents per letter. Johnson - who seceded from the AFA and now runs his own organization, the American Decency Association - claimed a personal victory when his local Stern affiliate, WKLQ in Grand Rapids dropped the show when then-station owners Citadel moved it to WBBL 1340 in 2003. Now that he's on SiriusXM, thankfully, he doesn't talk much about Stern anymore.

Over the years, the AFA also attacked two beloved cartoon characters: Donald Duck and Mighty Mouse. As we all know, Donald Duck has long been hard to understand, even when angry. Years ago, the AFA attacked Walmart for stocking a VHS collection of old Walt Disney cartoon shorts called "Fun On The Job". One of the shorts in the collection was the 1937 cartoon "Clock Cleaners", in which the beloved fowl allegedly used, ahem, *foul* language while arguing with a clock coil. In the original print, Donald says, "says who?" But since his voice is unintelligible, he sounds like he's screaming "fuck you!" In Mighty Mouse's case, the AFA went after the rodent in the 1980s when then-new episodes of his adventures started airing on CBS. In one of the episodes, he sniffs a flower that turns into powder. The AFA pricks felt it was a cocaine reference. To make matters worse, the series was produced by the legendary Ralph Bakshi, who animated Mighty Mouse cartoons for their original studio, Terrytoons in the 1950s. However, what pissed off the AFA was that in the 1970s, Bakshi - tired of traditional children's animation - crossed over to the world of counterculture X-rated movies, namely "Fritz the Cat".

Oddly enough, former longtime Stern show guest and current presidunt Drumpf is now in bed with the AFA and One Million Moms. It might be a huge reason why Stern supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

It's been a known fact for years that when a religious group that loves to punish people and make them feel guilty tells you to not buy, hear or watch a certain thing, it's instant promotion for them. When Marilyn Manson released "Antichrist Superstar" in 1996, BOTH Repukes and Democrats attacked the album, plus, yes, clergy. It sold seven million albums worldwide. When Guns 'n Roses released "Appetite For Destruction" in 1987, it was originally a bomb because MTV refused to play any of the album's singles. What happened was MTV made a deal with the owner of one of the largest cable companies at the time, TCI and its ultra-conservative billionaire owner, John Malone to not play any videos by acts they believed to be "heroin junkies". Sadly, G'nR fit the bill. Only after the album sat collecting dust on shelves for seven months that the band's label boss, David Geffen called MTV to play the video for "Welcome To The Jungle". They only offered to play it once at 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Well, later that day, the video went into full rotation after the MTV switchboard melted from too many calls at once from people BEGGING to get more G'nR on the now-former music video channel. Thirty-two years and over 30 million copies sold later....

Look, when a religious group uses the Bible to attack their own, people will rebel. This is why atheism is on the rise. A lot of the time, when I think of Christianity, I don't think of Jesus. I think of people who have perverted his name over the years with lies. I once went to a left-leaning church and the preacher on that day's sermon was on how the only real version of the Bible one should trust is the New Revised Standard Version. Why? Look at their version of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10:

9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.

And the New International Version:

9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

You see, the New Testament was translated from Greek texts, and nobody ever knew what word "malakoi" meant. Other Bibles use the word "effeminate", but in reality, "male prostitution" and "men who have sex with men" are two separate terms. Personally, the NIV is a Bible created to tell people that God hates gays, women and people of color.

And just imagine, if that Zola commercial with the black couple was made in 1954, that same AFA - being based in Mississippi and all - would be screaming and yelling with a noose in its hands.

The reality is that the AFA has shown that they're part of America that's dying. It's a past that nobody wants a part of because they love to punish, but we the people fought back with tweets and boycotts. We won this battle, and there's more to come that we'll continue winning.

Oh, and according to Wikipedia, the AFA only has 180,000 members. So much for One Million Moms. Ever hear of "thou shalt not bear false witness?"

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Thursday, December 12, 2019

12.12.19 Bee-otch of the Day: John Clark

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: John Clark
Age: was 52
Occupation: former pastor, West Side Community Church
Last Seen: click here
Bee-otched For: being a crook

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On Sunday, the world observed the 39th anniversary of the tragic passing of the great John Lennon.

He was a man whom a lot of people could agree with. His songs were messages of peace and unity.

However, one thing I don't totally agree with is that Instant Karma's gonna get you. Sometimes, it takes too damn long for that to happen.

Eight days before my 12th birthday, my mom left my dad. She eventually remarried, but my dad was in a low spot in his life. He was a bus driver and one day a few years later, there were some new kids on his run. They lived in a big house in the middle of the woods on a dirt road. The father was out to pick them up and dad ended up in a conversation with him. Turned out the family went to New Hope Community Church in Williamsburg, Michigan - just outside Traverse City - and they had a singles ministry.

Well, we started attending, and dad instantly met the couple that ran the singles ministry. And there was John Clark, who at the time ran the youth ministry at New Hope. We both agreed to attend both Sunday service and our respective ministries during the week, with me attending youth ministry on Wednesday nights.

In the beginning, New Hope was a nice experience for the two of us. In Dad's case, he even met a woman there and the two dated. The youth ministry wasn't bad, either. Since New Hope's sanctuary doubled as a gym, Wednesday nights were loaded with activities and games, usually ending with Pastor John giving out a teen-friendly sermon. All was well for a while. But after a few years, Dad and I started having problems in our respective ministries. The leaders of the singles ministry were very controlling. They told everybody not to remarry and one time, they were at a nightclub that had dancing and they told everybody to sit. Um, ever hear of that little Bible verse about having a "time to dance"? Also, my Dad's girlfriend cheated on him with her boss, and ended up pregnant with his kid.

Well, the youth ministry was no walk in the park, either. About a year after I started attending, they split it into two: middle and high school. The middle schoolers still got to smack each other with dodgeballs. But since I now was in high school, the fun 'n games came to an end. The high school crowd was now forced into small groups. All of us were assigned to a classroom - about 10 or so per group - with a leader. Mine was some old grey-haired boomer. I remembered all of us being handed a sheet of paper that was a questionnaire and it was a one to ten answer for each question. One of the questions was: "how often do you think about sex?" Talk about fucking embarrassing. I was afraid that the old guy was going to shame me for, well, being human. During this time, every fucking week, it was a guilt trip. The lesson was always that thinking about pussy for one second will lead you into a pit of fire in the end.

One summer, I skipped on a lot of youth ministry meetings. I came to church one Sunday and John tracked me down. He asked me why I wasn't coming every week, and he was stern about it. He told me that he wanted me there this Wednesday. Wow. This schmuck wasn't my Dad nor my boss. And yet, he was playing the game of being a control freak.

Not a long time afterward, my Dad's foot finally came down. You see, the lead pastor, David Standfest asked the congregation to give him $1.7 million ON ONE SUNDAY so they could expand the church. Almost immediately, two of the church's followers sold their businesses. One owned a chain of hardware stores and another owned a popular restaurant in Kalkaska. Since Dad was a part-time bus driver and Standfest was a well-to-do pastor who put his kids in expensive schools and drove an expensive SUV, we mutually decided to stop attending New Hope.

Dad and I tried several churches after New Hope. We went to a Baptist church whose pastor was a fellow bus driver. Sadly, his sermon was about how porn was "bad for you". We tried a church in Traverse City that was nice, but too far of a drive for Dad and I. Most of the other churches in our highly-rural area were for old farts and way too traditional. So, we stopped attending.

I did go to one more church before I graduated high school, and it was a shitty Pentecostal church in a tiny hick town. The only reason why I went there was because there was a girl I hung out with and her white trash family attended. And yes, they screamed and spoke in tongues. It was a huge reason why I stopped talking to her, and for good reason. For a long, long time, I refused to even walk into a church, simply because I did my research. I looked at the televangelists on TV who preached the prosperity gospel. They're the ones who live in giant mansions and fly around in $60 million jet planes while their viewers all live in houses that once had wheels on them. Working for a religious asshole who paid his workers - especially me - a pittance of a wage didn't help matters much, either. Because of my experience with him, New Hope and others, I simply didn't want anything to do with religion, especially in my spare time. I even tried going to a left-leaning church here in Grand Rapids, but being a relatively young, straight white male in a crowd of geezers, gays and even a few transgenders made it a hard fir for me. The reason why I left was because of a poor black man who attended who constantly tried to hit me up for money and rides. The final straw with him was when he begged me for $500 to fix his car that wasn't even worth $500. That, and the lack of young females who attended made me quit.

For you longtime readers, this is why I'm no fan of organized religion. It's all about money and not enough of it goes to feed the poor or help people in need. It goes to selfish shit that goes against Jesus's teachings. I know that nobody's perfect, and neither am I.

Since I left New Hope, a lot has happened. David Standfest retired, only to start another New Hope Church in Rockford, just north of Grand Rapids. Once again, he retired some time ago. I'm not sure what happened with the couple that ran Dad's singles ministry. But John Clark, however...

Not a very long time after I left New Hope, John started his own church near Traverse City's west side, appropriately named West Side Community Church. Like New Hope, it's in the middle of nowhere, but designed to attract those who live in rural Leelanau County as well. Everything was hunky-dory for about 17 years until just a few short months ago when church staff noticed that $500,000 was missing. In August, Clark resigned from West Side. On Monday, his body was discovered on his property in Benzie County with a single gunshot wound to the head. John Clark was 52 and left behind a wife, three sons and a daughter, plus two grandkids on the way.

You know, when somebody who does good in their lives, they're the Hero of the Day. On Friday, I gave it to former Grand Rapids radio personality Aris Hampers for warning people about the dangers of smoking. Monday, it was Caroll Spinney who made us all better people with his longtime portrayal of Big Bird. And on Tuesday, it went to Marie Fredrikkson of Roxette, who lost her heroic battle with cancer.

Jesus helped the poor. Jesus cured the sick. Jesus walked with prostitutes. Jesus shamed the wealthy. And yet, John Clark used his religious authority to make teens in the 1990s feel bad every time they watched an R-rated movie or took a peek at Playboy. Basically put, he treated people like me like chewed-up gum because of an abbreviated verse from the New International Version of the Bible, which itself is a retelling of the King James Version, which itself is loaded with poorly-translated bullshit designed to hurt woman, blacks and the LGBTQ+ crowd.

Look at Jimmy Carter. In an interview with Playboy in 1976, he admitted that he had lust in his heart. And yet, because of this, I think the so-called Moral Majority did everything they could to dethrone him as president in 1980 and did so successfully. After he left the White House, Jimmy taught Sunday School and built houses with Habitat With Humanity. Reagan pretty much fucked over the middle class, which is what the Jerry Falwells and Jim Bakkers wanted.

Now, it's not nice to bash the recently-passed, but John Clark was a crook, plain and simple. What he spent the 500k on is anybody's guess, but I'll tell you what: he had more money than I do. As somebody who lives paycheck to paycheck with not a whole lot left over, I sure as hell don't want to give it to a judgmental pastor who uses God to make more money than I do. And I sure as hell don't want to walk out of a church service feeling guilty because of the pastor reading from a poor translation of The Bible. If people want to bash me, fine. But then again, it was Jesus who mentioned that ye who is without sin may cast the first stone.

If man is five, then the devil is six. If the devil is six, then God is seven. But is that monkey gone to Heaven? Only the big man up there can judge.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

12.11.19 Bee-otches of the Day: the jury in the Larry Inman trial

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: various
Age: various
Occupation: various
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: giving Larry Inman a second chance

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What the world needs now: another Repuke that goes free simply because he's "one of us".

Late last night, the jury for Michigan congressman Larry Inman declared him not guilty for lying to the FBI, plus a hung jury for two other counts. Inman was on trial for seeking campaign contributions from unions for no votes in regard to repealing Michigan's prevailing wage law, which covers wages for construction workers working on state-funded projects.

The judge who presided over the case was Robert Jonker, the same judge who kissed Walmart's ass in this case from several years ago. He was an appointee of George W. Bush's, which says a lot.

Ya know, I have a feeling that the jurors in this trial were all Rethugs themselves. After all, the trial was in Grand Rapids - where the US District Court is - and heaven forbid that Inman would ever get replaced with a Democrat who would go after the wealthy and create jobs. Hell, even Michigan house speaker Lee Chatfield (R) asked for Inman's resignation.

The sad truth is that Inman is from Williamsburg, a small, unincorporated community just outside Traverse City that's the home to a large casino, a few gas stations, an adult novelty store and not a whole lot else. The sad truth about the area is that they look down on young people. The majority of the area is made up of Boomers and older and heaven forbid that a Democrat would come in to solve the reason why fast food restaurants in the area can't stay open. Oh, I know! PEOPLE CAN'T FUCKING LIVE ON $10 PER HOUR IN TRAVERSE CITY, WHERE RENT FOR A STUDIO APARTMENT HOVERS AROUND $1000 PER MONTH! IMHO, the big reasons for why the TC area is a Rethug hellhole are 1) residents don't want them Democrats to take away their guns and 2) many people who live up north come from Detroit and simply don't want to be around people of color.

The good news is that there's a recall election in the works and chances are that Inman could be out of office next year. I hope the people of northern Michigan will vote with their brains and not simply because there's an (R) after their name. Inman is a thug and the people in northern Michigan deserve better.

Hopefully, he can take Drumpf with him, too.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

12.10.19 Hero of the Day: Marie Fredriksson

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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A VERY SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!

Name: Marie Fredriksson
Age: was 61
Occupation: singer of Roxette
Last Seen: The Great Beyond
Awarded For: being a huge contributor to our lives

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Another piece of my youth is gone.

We learned today that Marie Fredriksson, the female half of the 1980s and 90s Swedish pop-rock duo Roxette died after battling a brain tumor for 17 years. She was just 61.

Born in a tiny village in Sweden, Össjö, pop. 192, Fredriksson first rose to fame in her native homeland with a punk rock band called Strul before starting a career as a solo artist in the early 80s. She started working with future partner Per Gessel as a backup singer for his band Gyllene Tider before they broke up in 1985. Then, Per and Marie formed Roxette, which was named for a song by the British rock group Dr. Feelgood.

Their first album, 1986's "Pearls of Passion" was a modest success. Their 1988 album "Look Sharp!" did well internationally but wasn't a hit here in the States when it was released. However, a man from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman, a 21-year-old exchange student to Sweden, brought home a copy of the album. He loved it so much that he gave his copy to his local top 40 station, KDWB to play. Soon, requests for the song "The Look" exploded and the station sent copies to their sister stations. Roxette's label, EMI originally had no faith in the band doing well here in America. Only a short time after Cushman slipped KDWB a copy of the album, "The Look" was the number one song in America.

Throughout the late 80s and early 90s, Roxette were on top of the musical world with #1 smashes like "Listen to Your Heart", "It Must Have Been Love" and the Beatles-inspired "Joyride". Other big hits for the duo included "Dressed For Success" and the #2 hits "Fading Like a Flower" and "Dangerous". Per and Marie were the most-successful duo from Sweden, only behind - you guessed it - ABBA, selling over 75 million copies of their albums.

But like ABBA, Roxette's popularity started to falter after many years of success. And oddly enough, the Golden Arches played a role. As a promotion, McDonald's sold a shortened version of their 1994 album "Crash! Boom! Bang!" at their restaurants. It did sell over a million copies and proceeds did support their Ronald McDonald House charity. However, many felt that Roxette became sell-outs for allowing McDonald's to sell the album. As a result, none of the album's singles hit the Billboard Top 40 here in America, though "Sleeping In My Car" was a modest radio hit, peaking at #22.

Roxette continued to record and tour internationally to millions of people, though here in America, they became another "where are they now?" band. Sadly, in 2002, Marie collapsed in her bathroom after jogging with her husband, Micke Bolyos. She had a seizure and while at the hospital, doctors discovered a tumor at the back of her head. It was malignant and was successfully removed. However, she was now partially blind and had mobility issues. She and Per returned to recording and touring, but sadly, the cancer returned. Doctors told her to retire from touring in 2016 due to poor health, which she did.

As somebody who spent his pre-teen years listening to Roxette's hits on the radio, I am very upset about Ms. Fredrikkson's passing. Not only that, she died from the same cancer that took my aunt away from us. Plus, the two were born the same year: 1958.

I hope that Marie's final days on Earth were at peace and filled with love. Not only that, I hope her children gave her the love she needed that my aunt didn't get from her kids while she was on her death bed.

Cancer sucks. Period.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Monday, December 9, 2019

12.9.19 Hero of the Day: Carroll Spinney

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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A VERY SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!

Name: Carroll Spinney
Age: 85
Occupation: puppeteer, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch
Last Seen: The Great Beyond
Awarded For: entertaining the world in a giant, stinky bird costume

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December 8 is a day that will go down in entertainment infamy.

This Sunday, we observed the anniversaries of the deaths of two rock legends due to crazy people with guns: John Lennon and Dimebag Darrell Abbott. But on this past Sunday, three more folks crossed over who brought us all joy.

The world was stunned when rapper Juice WRLD died after collapsing at Midway Airport in Chicago. He had just turned 21. Best-known for the tune "Lucid Dreams" and best-selling albums "Death Race For Love" and "Goodbye and Good Riddance", Juice WRLD had just gotten off of a private jet when he suffered a seizure. Police confiscated several bottles of codeine cough syrup and 70 lbs. of marijuana from the plane, along with several guns and ammo.

Also on Sunday, René Auberjonois, best-known for playing Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Clayton Endicott III on Benson died at 79 from lung cancer. He started as a stage actor in the 1960s and made his film debut as Father Mulcahy in the 1970 film "MASH".

But if there was one person who touched more people who died yesterday, it was a man who made his living portraying a giant canary who was a perpetual five-year-old.

For 49 of the last 50 years, Carroll Spinney was the voice and body of Big Bird, the star of Sesame Street. He began his life as an artist and puppeteer. Jim Henson loved him so much that in 1969, he gave him the ever-so-daunting task of putting on that giant bird outfit. Sesame Street was a runaway success. It was so popular that PBS allowed secondary affiliations with TV stations in towns without a PBS affiliate so they could air the show.

Sesame Street was originally designed for inner city children with a racially and culturally diverse cast. But as we all know, the Muppets turned out to be the big stars of the show and Big Bird was its leader. Yes, he taught us to count and spell, but he also taught us feelings. When Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper died in 1982, he was taught that if somebody dies, they're not coming back. The show used the opportunity to teach children how they can pay tribute to fallen friends and loved ones. Big Bird also taught us about imagination and lots of other things birds simply can't do.

Spinney was also portrayed Oscar the Grouch. The angry, cantankerous - yet lovable - green monster who calls a trash can his home.

Aside from being Big Bird and Oscar's provider, Spinney was an accomplished artist. The subjects of many of his works were - who else - Big Bird and Oscar.

In recent years, however, lots of changes have occurred with both Sesame Street and Spinney. The show went from being an hour long to only 30 minutes and in 2016, the show shocked its longtime fans when its producers, Sesame Workshop announced that first-run episodes of the program would be moving to HBO with PBS continuing to air after a nine-month embargo. Also, Carroll reduced his role as Big Bird due to him being diagnosed with dystonia, a disease that causes muscle contractions. He remained his voice until 2018 when he retired from the show for good.

When his announcement was made, It simply told me that he probably didn't have that much longer on this earth. Well, I was right, since he died on Sunday. For the past several years, Both Big Bird's voice and puppetry has been performed by Matt Vogel, who also does the voices for The Count and since 2017, Kermit the Frog. Oscar, OTOH is now done by Eric Jacobson, who also performs Bert, Guy Smiley and Grover, all roles once performed by Frank Oz.

As a young boy who grew up without cable, Sesame Street was a part of my daily TV diet, along with other PBS shows like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow, 3-2-1 Contact and Square One Television. Yes, there were kids with cable in my highly-rural northern Michigan school district and they got to watch other kids get slimed on Nickelodeon. But at least for me, I've learned to be somewhat smarter than a lot of the kids I went to school with.

Yes, Big Bird will live on forever and forever, but nobody can ever fill those big orange talons like Carroll Spinney could.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Thursday, December 5, 2019

12.5.19 Hero of the Day: Aris Hampers

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.
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A VERY SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!

Name: Aris Hampers
Age: 70
Occupation: former radio personality, rock musician
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Awarded For: using his personality to warn people about a mistake he was making for 55 years

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When people think of the words "west Michigan" and "rock 'n roll", they think of everybody from Pop Evil, Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iggy Pop, Sleeping With Sirens, Still Remains and The Verve Pipe.

But long before any of those artists even cracked a microphone, there was Aris Hampers.

In the 1960s, the classically-trained pianist and high schooler with his friends formed a garage rock band called The Soulbenders. The band quickly gained momentum around Grand Rapids and soon, their records were selling well and local radio stations were playing their hits. In 1967, their rendition of "Hey Joe" was a top hit on Grand Rapids radio. As a matter of fact, it was the biggest single on WLAV-AM 1340 (now all-Sports WJRW The Ticket) in all of 1967. The band was offered a record contract, but turned it down. Years later in an interview, Aris exclaimed that he wished that signed the contract. Not long after, The Soulbenders reformed as Phlegethon, forming a more-progressive rock sound. Their 1971 mellotron-infused single "Last Voyage Home" was also a top hit on west Michigan radio. Shortly thereafter, Phlegethon disbanded.

In 1973, Hampers helped to launch WLAV-FM, Grand Rapids' first Album-Oriented Rock station. He was a staple there in the 70s and 80s, along with stops at the short-lived Fox 101 in the early 80s and a run in the 1990s at WKLQ. In the 2000s, he returned to 101.3 when it was relaunched as Classic Rocker The Fox (now The Brew). His last on-air gig was at the short-lived Alternative Radio X 96.1 (now an ESPN affiliate) about a decade ago.

Aside from radio, Aris lived the rock 'n roll lifestyle and was its hero. His annual Hometown Rock Searches were well-attended (I went to one of them years ago at the long-defunct Orbit Room) and was a champion for upcoming talent. He even owned his own record store, Aris' Disc Shop, which sadly was not very profitable.

Aris has been away from the microphone for several years now, but still appeared at local events and hanging out with friends and fans at downtown venues. As a matter of fact, I even got a chance to hang out with him for a bit at The Intersection many years ago after a concert by Local H and Electric Six.

But sadly, that voice has been forever silenced.

This morning, Aris took to Facebook to announce that he can no longer talk. Several months ago, doctors discovered a 1.5-inch cancerous mass on his windpipe, which he called his "reward" for being a heavy smoker for 55 years. The tumor had damaged Aris' voicebox so badly that in order for him to survive, doctors had to remove it.

The good news is that the tumor did not spread to the rest of his body and no chemo is needed. Since breaking the news early today, several hundred of his fans and colleagues took to Facebook to give him well wishes and positive vibes. His voice might be gone forever, but for the thousands who have listened to his voice for decades, Aris' voice will live on in memory.

Years ago, I visited Aris at his Disc Shop at Celebration! Cinema North, where Clear Channel also kept a remote studio and where he broadcasted his afternoon shift on The Fox. I would go there after a movie and browse around. Aris would be at the front counter and sometimes we would chat about radio. Knowing that I was the Chuck69.com guy, he'd tell me "Howard Stern is worthless". Well, he had every right to say that. At KLQ, he handled middays, and as we all know, Howard loves overtime. With Stern nipping away at his shift and management wanting him to play older rock because, well, he was the old guy, Aris had every God-given right to be pissed. Of course when Stern moved to Sirius in 2006, I pretty much bashed everybody who hated his guts, including Aris. Since I boycotted Clear Channel after what they did to him after the Janet Jackson Super Bowl nip slip, I made a picture of a tombstone with a caption proclaiming terrestrial radio's death. On it, I made a graffiti that read "Aris sucks". I look back 13 years later and realize why he hated Howard and probably still does. Nonetheless, I do feel sorry for making it, but considering how Howard was being treated by Matt Hanlon and Clear Channel in general, I did it anyway. I never wished ill will on Aris, but considering that he was a smoker, cancer was going to happen as it was.

My grandparents smoked and when my cousins and I were born, they quit. Even though he was smoke-free for 20 years, my grandfather still died from lung cancer in 2002. Both my parents smoke; my Dad's 67 and has smoked Marlboros since he was 11. Thankfully, my Mom, 64 has switched to vaping, though yes, even that's still dangerous. From my parents alone, I think I huffed enough second hand smoke to make me not want to begin smoking in the first place.

For some people it will take almost a whole lifetime to learn their lesson. Sadly, it will be too late when they do. I'm happy that Aris regretted wasting all this money and time on something he thought was cool in the 60s. In the end, it cost him the one thing that made him famous.

At least it didn't put him on the Long Voyage Home.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

12.4.19 Bee-otch of the Day: Mike Pence

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY!

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: Mike Pence
Age: 60
Occupation: former Indiana governor
Last Seen: west Michigan
Bee-otched For: coming here

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It's a shame when the asshole vice president of the United States rears his ugly head here in Michigan.

I shake my head thinking about when several years ago, a massive storm hit west Michigan and he had to appear live on WOOD-TV 8 to talk about some crazy bill he was promoting. Of course, he should have waited, but apparently, his pompous ass was more important than allowing west Michiganders to know how much damage the storm made.

And then, there was his trip to Mackinac Island last summer. There, he broke a edict that's been around for well over a century: he brought a motorcade to the Island. Mackinac Island has banned all motor vehicles almost since its invention because the Island fathers all feel that they take away from its charm and quaintness. However, motorized vehicles are allowed for emergency vehicles only. Just because Pence feels that he's the veep shouldn't mean that he's above the law. It's like a MAGAt walking into a Muslim-owned supermarket screaming at the owner about why they don't sell bacon.

Today, he returned to Michigan, mainly my neck of the woods. He hit Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Holland, where he held a rally with Sarah Fuckabee Sanders. In the rally - in which only 150 people showed up - Pence talked about the importance of voting Drumpf again for four more years. He also talked about why he feels that the Democrats are going more and more to the left and told the crowd that America can't afford to be a socialist country. This, of course, is from the asshole whom as governor of Indiana allowed businesses to kick LGBTQ+ individuals out because of their religion.

Yes, Pence has proved to the world that he wants to turn America into a so-called "Christian" nation, though it's not talked about in the Constitution. While other countries have developed socialist policies that have created jobs and fairness for the middle class, Pence and Drumpf are working hard to fuck things up. I know, Michigan's kinda in the middle in terms of politics. This is why NBC News announced that they will be putting their microscope on Kent County and west Michigan for next year's elections. Drumpf won this state only by 10,000 votes because in my opinion, Hillary didn't give two shits about the Rust Belt states like Michigan and it cost her. Now, Drumpf, Pence and their minions are all coming here to warp the minds of their followers to all believe that their policies will create jobs. But in the end, they will be bringing this state back to the 2000s.

Apologies to R. Dean Taylor, but, Mike Pence, Indiana wants you and you should go back there.

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