6.8.20 Bee-otch of the Day: Bob Goodrich

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.

 

-------

Name: Bob Goodrich
Age: 79
Occupation: failing businessman
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: getting rid of only one tiny egg in his basket                                                              

----

I think we're all familiar with ghost towns and the reasons why they are that way.

When the gold rush ended, many towns ceased to exist. Some towns were sacrificed for man-made rivers. Centralia, PA was once a thriving town of 2,000 citizens. Thanks to an underground coal mine fire that's been raging since 1961, all but a few of the town's buildings have been razed due to government domain. Despite being unsafe to live, Centralia still has about a dozen residents. In the 1860s, Singapore was a small, yet thriving town by Saugatuck here in Michigan. Its main industry was timber. After they chopped down miles of trees to supplement Chicago after their 1871 fire, erosion caused mass amounts of sand to cover the village. Today, what's left of Singapore is covered by the Lakeshore Sand Dunes. 

Yes, we can talk about the Upper Peninsula's downfall of the copper mining industry, which has left many places turned into ghost towns. We can also talk about other environmental disasters that left towns like Picher, OK deserted as well. But, just imagine that there's now another factor creating ghost towns: COVID-19.

Just last Thursday, Woodland Mall here in Grand Rapids reopened for the first time since the coronavirus hit. The mall - which received a $100 million facelift last fall from owner PREIT - was supposed to add some new stores last Spring. Sadly, COVID-19 changed those plans. Evenmore, other stores packed it up and left, like Dough Life (like real people would want to pay big bucks for a wad of cookie dough) and TGI Fridays.

However, the mall's biggest ghost town now is its 14-screen theater which was a Celebration Cinema until the virus hit. The subrun theater never made a profit in its 12 years as a Loeks family O&O. So, when the lease expired, Celebration walked away. The question now is that in this society trying to kick COVID-19 to the curb once and for all, will it reopen with new owners?

I walked by the theater on Thursday and it felt apocalyptic. They still had posters for "Knives Out" and "Dolittle" filling the displays. True, Grand Rapids' other cinemas are still closed, at least until June 15. However, Governor Whitmer gave the OK to allow theaters to start showing movies in northern Michigan on Wednesday. However, there's really no movies to show. As a matter of fact, the Loeks' only open movie theater is Muskegon's Getty Drive-in, which is currently showing four movies you can watch from home: "Trolls World Tour", "The Invisible Man" and "Sonic the Hedgehog", plus the original 1978 "Superman" with the late Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder. 

Right now, it looks like some of the biggest theater chains are now saying that they might be out of business by the end of 2020. AMC might be looking at bankruptcy and so is Detroit-based Emagine Entertainment, which owns several luxury theaters. According to Box Office Mojo, only a handful of movies are expected to be released next month, like the much-ballyhooed "Tenet", out on July 17. Question is, is that how many people will be seeing it and other Hollywood flicks given the risks that COVID-19 is still around, plus the fact that many theaters will have to severely limit seating?

How ironic that I mention Emagine. According to their bankruptcy documents, they were supposed to be the main suitor of the bankrupt Goodrich Quality Theater chain, based here in Grand Rapids. GQT filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year after owner Bob Goodrich admitted that when he remodeled his theaters several years ago, he was hoping to regain that money through ticket sales. However, despite Hollywood producing many hits, it was not enough to pay off his debtors. Already, GQT is in talks to sell their 102-year-old Cadillac 4 in Cadillac, MI to the non-profit Footliters group, who plans to still show movies along with live performances.

Like a good farmer, Goodrich didn't put all of his eggs in one basket. Too bad one of those baskets is his faltering Public Reality Radio network of stations. Since Goodrich fired popular Southpaws host Darren Gibson in 2016 and many of the station's other hosts, WPRR has emerged as a station nearly 100% of west Michiganders don't give two rat's asses about. Yes, it serves as a leftist voice in a sea of right-winged BS, it's just too bad that voice sucks up to the establishment.

Now, WPRR is one station less here in west Michigan. Starting today, their translator at 95.3 here in Grand Rapids - which covers most of the city - is now simulcasting WGVU-FM 88.5 out of Allendale. WGVU-FM's signal only covers Grand Rapids' west side due to its power only being 4,000 watts from a tower 20 miles west of town. As a matter of fact, there's some short-spacing between 88.5 and community-run 88.1 WYCE in Wyoming and Blue Lake's 88.9 WBLU here in Grand Rapids.

Goodrich sold the 250-watt translator for a mere $50,000. That's probably less than stuffing one of his auditoriums with new seats, but it's something. WPRR still has a translator at 102.5, which covers the north part of Grand Rapids. WPRR also simulcasts on 5,000-watt 90.1, which covers a vastly-rural area west of GR.

As I've said, I used to like Bob Goodrich. However, his bad business decisions of alienating good, hard-working people like Gibson, Mary Harrington and others, along with firing all of his under-18 workers at his cinemas cost him severely. Tragically, he's simply turning into another Matt Hanlon, allowing  somebody like Tyrone Bynum who ran another station into the ground, WMFN 640 to run his radio station. He's getting what he deserved. 

In a previous post, I mentioned that Emagine would be a great suitor for the Woodland Mall Cinema. I guess that's not gonna happen now. Now, PREIT will have the dubious task of not just wondering what to do with the shuttered TGI Friday's and that sushi joint, but how to fill a 14-screen cinema when no theater chain is doing well. I just hope that it doesn't become a fucking megachurch.

Only time will tell if WPRR will survive or not, and my spidey senses are pointing to 'no'. Thanks, but if I want to listen to good, high-quality talk radio, I'll listen over the web to a podcast like this one. 

When you air a radio show called "The 99%ers" and nobody's listening, you might as well do the right thing and sell the ranch.

--

  ----

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!

CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!