Names: The Democratic and Republican Parties
Ages: 194, 168
Occupation: America's two main political parties
Last Seen: Washington, DC
Bee-otched For: being useless
Recently, I had dinner at my mom's. During our meal, she told me that she had a favor to ask of me: to take her to Costco to fill up her car.
If you know anything about Grand Rapids, it's the fact that there are two Costcos. The one on 28th St. by I-96 is always busy, especially their gas station, which usually has the cheapest gas in town. Being off the expressway, the lines to get gas can replicate the 1970s oil embargo.
Sitting in line, the stereo to my mom's Kia Soul was set to good 'ole geezer rocker WLAV (96.9) which was playing The Steve Miller Band's #8 hit from 1977, "Jet Airliner". Now, if you're a classic rock aficionado, you know there are two versions of that song. There's the album version that most classic rock stations play, which begins with a one-minute track called "Threshold" that's basically a typical cheesy-sounding 1970s synthesizer making sci-fi noises. That version's third stanza ends with the phrase "funky shit going on in the city". The single edit omits "Threshold" while there are "funky kicks going on in the city" to please those conservative CHRs of the day.
Well, WLAV played "Threshold" like any well-behaved classic rocker. But, when it was time for Mr. Miller and Co. to tell us that they don't want to get caught up in that any of that funky shit in that funky shit in the city, the word "shit" was reversed. My 66-year-old, devout Christian mother yelled "WHAT THE FUCK?"
Classic rock stations usually played "Jet Airliner" uncut for decades, even after the Supreme Court ruled in a landmark 1978 case that "shit", one of the infamous "Seven Dirty Words" George Carlin warned us about was a word that cannot be said in the world of Broadcasting. Back then, if a station got caught, it was a meager $7,000 fine. Thanks to Janet Jackson's Super Bowl nip slip, it's now $420,000.
With LAV owned by broadcast giant Cumulus, they sure as hell don't want to pay that $420K if someone complains over a word that's far less offensive than racial slurs, which by the way, the FCC has no rule against. Yes, you can't say "shit", "fuck" "cocksucker" or "tits", but you can say racial slurs that will cause one to be canceled out.
Yes, this is what we get when Republicans run the show. The 1978 Supreme Court that ruled in the FCC's favor were mostly Nixon appointees. The FCC that jacked up indecency fines was pressured by a mostly Republican government. But, don't look at me. I never voted Republican in my life.
Maybe that's why most Americans have some sort of liberalism in their lives. Polls have long shown that the majority want better Healthcare, support minorities, tougher gun laws, and - dare I say it - a woman's right to choose to keep her unborn child if she's pregnant. But, thanks to the minority - as in the conservatives - that will all change.
In 30 years, the only time a Republican won the presidency wholeheartedly was George W. Bush in 2004. The only reason why he won in 2000 and Drumpf in 2016 was because of the Electoral College.
But, as I've mentioned many a time, BusHitler and Drumpf won because of weak Democrats. Al Gore surrounded himself with anti-First Amendment assholes like Joe Lieberman and his ex-wife Tipper. Hillary Clinton supported the multi-trillion-dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was a total flip-flopper.
As I've mentioned in another post, the two-party system is like living in a town where there are people who like either country or rock. The Repukes are like country fans who have a country station that plays all the Garth, Reba, and Morgan Wallen to melt their hearts. But the Dems are like rock fans whose local voice is a station that calls themselves "rock", but they load their playlist with Elton John, Michael Bolton, and Celine Dion. Sadly, that rock station is the Democratic Party, which has given us nothing but broken promises for too long while the Republicans are like the Faster Horses Festival, loaded with people getting COVID-19 and dying of sheer stupidity.
Sadly, when it comes to the Democratic establishment, the apple has fallen extremely far from the tree. If you voted for Hillary in 2016, it was out of reluctance. Earlier, I gave out the example of a city with two radio stations. Well, rock fans now have digital media from the likes of SiriusXM, Pandora, and others. Same with politics with the Green Party and others. Well, that's what happened in 2016. Didn't like Clinton? There's Jill Stein.
I compare Hillary to that old fable "The Tortoise and the Hare". Hillary thought she had what it took to win in 2016. She took shortcuts and avoided the Rust Belt while campaigning. Drumpf reached out to those same areas and rural towns like where I grew up in northern Michigan. Hillary thought that with the problems Dubya started with 9/11 and his fake wars that it would be an easy win for her. Boy, was she wrong.
Thanks to Democrats who refused to vote for her because of her self-centered attitude and a corrupt Electoral College, we got Drumpf. Yes, Hillary was far from perfect, but she still would have done a better job than Drumpf by far. Just recently, America became the first country where over one million people died from COVID-19. As president, Drumpf did NOTHING to combat the virus. Also, Drumpf elected three Supreme Court justices including one to unfairly replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And look at where we are now.
With the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade, chaos has ensued. It funny that it stemmed from a court case involving the sole abortion clinic in Mississippi, one of the most-bass-ackward states in America. A state that's the home of the only television station in American history to have its license revoked by the FCC because of its ties with the Ku Klux Klan. In a way, it feels like the south is winning.
Many have felt that if Roe is revoked, it won't totally outlaw abortion, but it will restrict where people could have one. Here in Michigan, abortion was illegal since 1931 thanks to a law that also made using profanity in public illegal in the Wolverine State. Well, that portion of the law was overturned thanks to the infamous "Cussing Canoeist" case in 2002 when a judge ruled that the law was outdated and violated the First Amendment. Currently, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel - both Democrats - claim that if Roe is nationally overturned, they will work hard to keep abortion legal in Michigan. And thankfully, that injunction was overturned and is now on the ballot in November.
In the past few years, the right has worked its evil power to tell women that it sucks to be them. Were you raped? Sucks to be you. Hey, how about dumping your unwanted kid into an orphanage? He or she will join nearly half-a-million kids who may never find a forever home.
But yet, the Court won't do a goddamn thing about the Second Amendment, even after Columbine, Sandy Hook, and just recently, the mass shooting at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Even worse, the guns used in those shootings were all legally purchased. Yes, tougher gun laws have been passed, but only time will tell how many guns will stay off the street.
I know I mentioned this in the past, but I'll say it again. I used to go to school with a young punk who was adopted. The story was that there was a middle-aged couple in my area who already had several daughters and they wanted a son. So, they became foster parents, and one of the boys they took care of melted their hearts so much that they ended up adopting him. Sadly, he was known for harassing others, including me. He was one of those types who spent his time in school in a resource room or at an alternative school in another town because of his acting up.
Just two years after I graduated high school, I was working at a party store when I picked up my local newspaper. I looked at the obituaries and there he was. A few years after he died, I found out that he died in jail. He had schizophrenia and the jail gave him the wrong medication. How did he end up in the slammer? Well, one day, his adoptive mother noticed something strange in his backpack that he shouldn't have had: a gun. It turned out that the gun was stolen, so they called the cops on him. To me, it was the wisest decision they ever made. With the way he acted, what if he went on a rampage?
True, some kids are lucky and get adopted. Some even have decent lives. However, I know of a few people who were adopted and they were a different story. And you just read one example. Yes, there are gay couples and celebrities like Madonna and Angelina Jolie who adopt, but it's not going to change the world.
Suffice it to say, the right to lifers are violent. Take for example the recent incident in Ionia County where an old lady from Right to Life came over to another woman's house. The woman she talked to was pro-choice and it led to a giant argument. So, the woman's husband came over with a shotgun and was going to shoot at a tree. Well, the bullet hit Miss RTL and she ended up going to the cops. The woman's husband was charged for attempted murder, though IMHO, he did nothing wrong.
What's sad is that when it comes to electing leaders, the words "what if?" come to mind. What if Al Gore was elected in 2000? Would the World Trade Towers still be standing? What if John Kerry was elected in 2004? Would we still get sucked into a recession in 2008? Now, it's Hillary's turn. Would the Supreme Court have a liberal majority? Would we be better off fighting COVID-19? Would gas be less than $4 per gallon? Better yet, what if Bernie Sanders was in the White House?
Sadly, the angry old white male is pawing for control. Case in point: my old stomping grounds in northern Michigan. There's far-right lunatic "Trucker" Randy Bishop, a convicted felon who through his wife - 13 years his senior - owns WCHY 97.7 Cheboygan and hosts a daily radio show called Your Defending Fathers. Recently on his show, he complained that companies are so "woke" these days that they have to have mixed-race families in their advertising. Not only that, he's running for state senate... as a Democrat. Of course, this assclown is a huge reason why I hate the FCC. It's not OK to accidentally show tits during the Super Bowl, but it's OK to spread hate and lies about COVID-19. After all, they've long abolished the Fairness Doctrine and the rule where you have to have your studio in your community of license (WCHY's studio is at Bishop's house by Torch Lake, some 70 miles away and well out of WCHY's coverage area).
But of course, this is Antrim County we're talking about, which made headlines in 2020 when for a very brief time, Joe Biden won the presidency. Traditionally, Antrim County - pop. 23,000 - has been blood red. It was discovered that those tallying the votes didn't understand the software, so they hand-counted the votes themselves and Drumpf won. In the 2020 election, the sole county up north that went for Biden was Leelanau.
As somebody who grew up in Antrim County (and even worse, lived a mere several blocks away from where Fucker Randy currently resides), I know the feeling of living in one of the reddest parts of a swing state. My parents struggled to stay in the middle class, especially since jobs were - and still are - very scarce. Besides, just a few years after my dad moved out of my childhood home, it was foreclosed on. The new owners, a middle-aged couple from the Detroit area couldn't get a decent job. Same thing with our neighbor's house; it was foreclosed on. I guess the bank sold that house for just over $100,000, which is a steal for four bedrooms and two baths.
Some people in northern Michigan on social media utter two words that the Grand Traverse area needs, but may never happen: affordable housing. Recently, there have been talks about a brand new housing project for seniors. Nice, but who can afford to work there? Something to think about is that my dad's cousin has a 46-year-old son with brain damage and lives at home. He needs around-the-clock care and the state pays his nurses less than $10 per hour. Their responsibilities include changing his diapers (he goes through $700 worth per month), feeding him, and making sure he doesn't bang his head on the walls.
And for all that, his caregivers get paid so poorly that flipping burgers sound more glamorous. And even more pathetic is that several restaurants and gas stations in the Grand Traverse region have either had to close or reduce hours because no one can afford to work for a pittance.
One of the biggest problems northern Michigan has endured for too long has been bigotry. I knew people who moved up north because they hate people of color. Some people even bring their fucked-up religious beliefs with them. As I've mentioned before, my father was a bus driver at a northern Michigan school district for 23 years. Being the first kid on his bus at the beginning of the day and the last off at the day's end, I got to see how people lived. He picked up and dropped off everybody from the well-to-do to kids so poor that the elementary school principal had to buy them clothes. Some of the kids were even the children of well-known media personalities.
One well-to-do family invited my father and me to attend New Hope Community Church in Williamsburg. Of course, we joined their individual ministries and hated it. My dad joined the singles ministry and hated being told not to remarry. I hated the youth ministry because their pastor - who later committed suicide after he stole $500,000 from a church he started - tried to dare us into hating sex. Not only that, one of the church's elders asked me personally how often I thought about sex. None of his business. Well, as I've mentioned, dad and I quit New Hope when the pastor begged his people for $1.7 million to expand their building.
After we quit New Hope, we went church shopping. One church we tried was run by one of dad's co-workers. Yep! Bus driver by day, a preacher on Sunday. Dad and I tried his church, which met in the lunch room at the middle school. This prick delivered the WORST sermon I've ever heard in my life. He was doing a series on the Ten Commandments and that week, it was adultery. The entire sermon was an attack on pornography and how he claimed that it destroys families. Today, I look back and think of how hypocritical he was crying that they treat violent movies in England like they treated porn in America: 18 and over only. He even bitched about how angry he was regarding the steamy scenes of soap operas like Days of Our Lives.
Bear in mind that not long before his bullshit diatribe, he got the middle school to stop displaying Mad Magazine in the library. His daughter borrowed an issue and he got pissed because of its "inappropriate" content. Since he was a school employee and rented out the middle school lunchroom for his church on Sunday, it was probably a no-brainer.
Well, guess what happened to him in January? He died at just 65 years old. I heard that his COD was COVID-19. How much money would you bet that he was against getting vaccinated and had that "Jesus will heal me!" attitude?
Folks, I already had a shitty childhood. I didn't need to be told by Bible thumpers that sex was bad and that I shouldn't have a sense of humor. Growing up, I supported - and still do support - those who had the First Amendment on their side. Howard Stern, Larry Flynt, Hugh Hefner, William M. Gaines, Marilyn Manson (IMHO, he's innocent), and others were my heroes. Dead bullshit spreaders like John Clarke and the aforementioned Gary Gladfelter weren't. When I moved to Grand Rapids, I made it a point to go to Deja Vu in Kalamazoo once a month not just because I love cute, naked girls, but because it was my middle finger to those who love to tell them that they had zero right to do so. Here in Grand Rapids in 2006, our city banned nude dancing. The religious cocksuckers who helped to create this unconstitutional law cried that it would reduce crime. Sixteen years later, the 6 p.m. news usually begins with another shooting.
During the pandemic, many bigger churches applied for Personal Paycheck Protection loans. Tragically, many of those so-called houses of worship had their loans forgiven. Joel Osteen's church got $4.4 million. Here in Grand Rapids, Resurrection Life got $1.3 million.
What's tragic is that the same folks who defend megachurch PPP loans are probably fuming about Biden forgiving student loans. So far, he's forgiven those who attended failed for-profit schools like ITT Tech and given $10,000 to those who make less than $125,000 per year.
Many of those who bitch about bailouts for the college-educated are probably crying that they need to pick up a hammer instead. Well, look at teachers. I've heard that some of them have to go to food banks because they make poverty wages. I've heard of a few who taught for one year and quit to return to their college job of bartending because it paid more. Many schools have resorted to phoning in virtual teachers from other municipalities to alleviate shortages.
Look, when I was a kid, being a schoolteacher was a good-paying and rewarding career. My great-grandmother was a teacher, and so were my grandmother, great-aunt, and aunt. Today, nobody in my family teaches. Why? The pay sucks. My cousin put thought into teaching, but being a temp agency coordinator pays more. Hell, I wanted to be a radio personality growing up. I even co-opped at a popular radio station as a teen where the morning guy admitted that their lowest-paid salesman got paid more than him. Hell, there was a popular DJ in northern Michigan who left radio because slinging beer paid more. We now live in a life where once-rewarding careers have become a joke while one can make $1,000 on a Saturday night making Long Island Iced Teas.
The reason why I usually vote Democrat is that the First Amendment is becoming more and more of an endangered species. Republicans only care about the peanuts while the elephants walk by. Now, if you haven't seen George Carlin's American Dream, let me explain something. When his career was taking off in the 1960s, Carlin saw himself playing in front of 40-year-olds who approved of the Vietnam War. As time went by, he became less and less comfortable with his clean-cut image. So, in 1970, he grew out his hair and started doing something that most other comedians refused to do: use profanity in his act. In 1974, a radio station in New York City, WBAI played his "Filthy Words" act. The FCC gave the station a Notice of Apparent Liability and the case went to the Supreme Court. Sadly, Nixon dumped in several new justices and they all favored the FCC.
Now, we live in a time when the media is run by big corporations and everything we watch is their puppet. Remember Air America, the radio network that was the answer to the right-winged bullshit being spewed on AM radio? It was nice in the beginning. But then, they made a deal with Clear Channel to put their shows on their weaker stations, and the shit hit the fan. Here in Michigan, we no longer have any true blue progressive talkers. WDTW 1310 Detroit was sold by iHeartMedia to a Spanish group. WLBY 1290 Ann Arbor was also sold by iHeartMedia to Cumulus, which was the same company that kicked Howard Stern and The Dixie Chicks off their stations for being too liberal. They flipped the flea-powered 1290 - which had decent ratings with liberal talk - to business talk and is now a conservative talker. WWKK 750 in Petoskey was sold to the same asshole who left downtown Traverse City with a massive hole in the ground at Front and Park Streets for nearly a decade. He flipped 750 to a simulcast of his WLDR 101.9, playing country music. Pointless, since the Straits area had multiple FM stations playing the same thing. Today, 750 is reportedly silent. Said the owner has had a long history of lying to the FCC over the status of his stations.
Now, Grand Rapids did have a progressive talker in the late 90s with 1140 WXBV, though it didn't do well, partly because it was a daytimer. Its owner, Robert Goodrich owned several other radio stations, including WJNZ 1680 Jamz, 104.5 WSNX, Oldies 107.3 WODJ (now Thunder 107.3), and I96 (now a sports station). He sold off his FMs but kept the AMs. The urban format of WJNZ moved to 1140 and was sold off (it's now a Catholic station). On the other hand, 1680 was leased to Radio Disney until they left terrestrial radio in 2008. So, Goodrich decided to give lefty talk another try, but with a twist.
That twist? Being a non-profit that wasn't.
AM 1680 was given a new call sign, WPRR, and format christened Public Reality Radio. Goodrich made the station a mix of talk from Pacifica Radio and podcasts. In 2012, former strip club DJ Darren Gibson brought his podcast called Southpaws to WPRR. Eventually, he became the station manager and even syndicated the show through Pacifica.
Under Gibson's aegis, he made WPRR one of the leading progressive talk stations in the Midwest. He gave locals a voice not heard on the corporate-owned stations in Grand Rapids. He even produced a woman's talk show called Women Libs Radio and several other programs spun off from Southpaws.
And then came Tyrone Bynum.
Bynum, who ran AM 640 into the ground - especially when he violated the station's contract with the Detroit Tigers by airing Gospel music and greedy preachers in its place on Sundays - weaseled his way back to radio with WPRR. There, he hosted a daily afternoon show, Drive For The Dream. On Southpaws, Gibson was the sole political pundit - maybe in America - who rightfully predicted that Bernie Sanders would win Michigan in 2016. However, co-host Joe Eldersaidt the Democratic National Committee would screw him over. Well, when he heard what Southpaws said, Tyrone had a closed-door meeting with the Kent County Democratic Party. Not long afterward, Darren and all of his fellow hosts were fired.
According to Darren, Goodrich fired him due to "poor ratings". However, with Michigan being an at-will state, he knew the truth. He was canned because he exposed the Democratic Party for who they were. Of course, Goodrich naturally gave the reigns of WPRR over to Tyrone, who ran WPRR into the ground as he did to 640.
And when that happened, karma became a bitch.
Shortly before the pandemic began, Goodrich made headlines when he fired all of those under 18 from his movie theaters so they could sell alcohol. The firing of Darren Gibson and minors further wrecked Bob Goodrich's reputation. And then, it REALLY happened: bankruptcy.
In February 2020, Goodrich Quality Theaters filed for bankruptcy. Bob claimed that he remodeled his theaters and was hoping that Hollywood would have made profitable hits. It turned out that he owned the company that made his theater's seats. I even remembered that he was so far in debt to Disney that they threatened to pull "Onward" from his theaters. Well, the 2020 shutdown happened and he was forced to sell GQT - founded by his father in 1930 - to new owners Mason Asset Management, a company known for owning failing shopping malls.
Today, Goodrich's former headquarters at 44th Street and the Beltline sit vacant with a giant for sale sign on the property. WPRR's old studio down the street is now some product design company's offices. Goodrich himself now lives in a tiny apartment just down the street from his failed Quad 6 Cinema in Kentwood, where Fox Ford now stands.
As for WPRR, the station became a ghost of its former self with hardly any local hosts. When Goodrich went bankrupt, he simply gave the station to Tyrone for free. Public Reality Radio was out and adult R&B was in as 102.5 The Ride. Since 102.5 is a translator of 1680, they broadcast in mono to make up for the fact that they're a weak channel wattage-wise. Allegedly, WPRR'S studio is now next door to Tyrone's law office in downtown Grand Rapids. The FCC has no record of where WPRR's studio is currently. At times, 1680 is off the air while 102.5 is on, an FCC no-no.
The Ride still has two talk shows Tyrone's (jokingly now named The 99%ers) and his former rival-turned-butt buddy Robert Simpson Womack, who is also a Grand Rapids city commissioner. Of course, the Grand Rapids city government is being criticized for how they treated the recent murder of Congolese immigrant Patrick Lyoya by a city cop. Only recently did the police department fire him after he was charged with Lyoya's murder.
Unfortunately, the Grand Rapids government - including mayor Rosalyn Bliss - simply told everybody to "respect the process" in terms of Lyoya's murder. Simply put, they're telling us to love the police even though one of them murdered someone simply because of the color of their skin and the fact that English wasn't his first language. If Lyoya was a white American, he'd still be alive today.
This is what happens when your mayor and city government are nothing more than puppets for the oligarchs who really own this town. Yes, there are a few black folks who are city commissioners, but they've sold out their own race by putting the DeVos family cock in their mouth. We're a city with a shitty police department with the audacity to slam cuffs on the wrists of then-eleven-year-old black girl Honestie Hodges, who was arrested for no reason. It wouldn't shock me if she battled PTSD for the rest of her life. She died in 2020 at just 14 from COVID-19. As for Tyrone, I've noticed that one of his station's sponsors is Brann's. Yes, the same douche who banned Michael Moore from his restaurants because he dissed "American Sniper". It might also explain why Tyrone has two white daughters.
Recently, Darren held Southpaws' Tenth Anniversary party, and a few dozen folks attended by invitation only. Judging by the crowd and recent radio ratings for the Grand Rapids area, Darren has a hell of a lot more listeners than Tyrone. Darren syndicated that recent party to Pacifica and I was proud to be a part of it. That weekend, Darren had surgery to remove a mass that turned out to be cancerous. His doctors claim that they might have gotten all of cancer, but only time will tell, obviously. Not only that, Darren is back in radio, now at Greenville classic hits WGLM/M106.3.
I'm one of those people who think that whites shouldn't be treated differently than blacks and that blacks shouldn't be treated differently than whites. The same goes for minorities who own TV and radio stations. Tragically, too many black-owned media outlets are just as bad as their white counterparts, maybe even worse. Look at Byron Allen. His mother was a personal assistant to Johnny Carson and he got to hang out with him and other celebrities as a kid. He had more privileges than most other black kids. Because of this, he became a successful comic and is now, a media tycoon. He now owns The Weather Channel, TheGrio, and 30 TV stations including Flint ABC affiliate WJRT-12. Recently, there was a mass exodus of employees at WJRT due to Allen slashing benefits. This occurred at the same time Allen purchased a $32 million mansion in the Los Angeles area.
Unfortunately, Allen refers to himself as a "staunch Democrat". Meanwhile, in Hyde Park, NY, FDR is spinning in his grave.
Growing up in almost-lily-white northern Michigan, my area actually had a black-owned radio station in the late 1990s, 1210 WJZZ in Kingsley, which played jazz music. It was owned by Bell Broadcasting, who owned several radio outlets in Detroit (the WJZZ call letters were on 105.9, now urban AC Kiss FM). Last year when I was packing up and moving to my new house, I found an article from the Traverse City Record-Eagle where they proclaimed that they had long-term plans for the Kingsley area, even for building a studio for the station. Well, that never happened. Just months after they lied out of their ass, Bell Broadcasting was sold to Radio One, who slapped a for-sale sign on WJZZ. Their major selling point was that it was northern Michigan's first 50,000-watt AM station. However, 1) they were daytime only, and 2) they had to power down to 2,500 watts two hours past sunrise and two hours before sunset to protect WPHT 1210 Philadelphia, which is 50,000 watts 24/7. Not only that, but the station's transmission site is also a toxic waste dump. The engineers who cobbled together 1210 said that they couldn't install the radials to produce groundwave because of contamination. Simply put, Bell only put 1210 in Kingsley because they owned WCHB 1200 Detroit and wanted to boost that to 50,000 watts. To do so, they bought WKNX 1210 in Saginaw - which moved to silent WXOX 1250 Bay City - moved 1210 to Kingsley, and then sold it to Radio One, who wanted nothing to do with whitey. Finally in 2000, after being silent a lot and airing a taped urban oldies format to keep the license active here and there, Radio One sold 1210 to Mr. Hole in the Ground for $225,000. Since then, 1210 has switched hands a few times and is now a sports station. Current owner John Yob recently filed a construction permit with the FCC to downgrade 1210's daytime signal to 10,000 watts since the station is pretty worthless, especially since they now have a translator on 101.1 in Traverse City.
For the record, Radio One and iHeartMedia were the only two big radio conglomerates to own stations in northern Michigan. Bear in mind that over 20 years ago, iHeartMedia (fka Clear Channel) bought WHGR 1290 in Houghton Lake only to shut it down so they could power up WOOD 1300 Grand Rapids to 25,000 watts.
Now Radio One (now called Urban One) founder Cathy Hughes is a spirit animal for many. She was an unwed teenage mother who was kicked out of her family's home. Raising a young son, Alfred Liggins (now U1's CEO), she got into radio where she grew up in Omaha and eventually made it to Washington, DC where she created The Quiet Storm for WHUR. When faltering R&B station WOL needed a new owner, she sold her house and was approved by the 33rd lender she talked to. She slept in the station's studio until it started to break even. She flipped WOL from R&B to a talk/AC mix and it was successful. WOL started making money again and she bought more stations. In 1999, Radio One went public. Hughes was the first black woman in American history to chair a publicly traded company.
Yes, she might be a hero to some, but goddammit, I think she's a dumb ho.
First of all, she claims full credit for being the founder of Urban One. Turns out that it was co-founded in 1979 by her then-husband, Dewey Hughes as the Almic Corporation, named after Cathy's son, the aforementioned Alfred, and Dewey's son, Michael. In a 1981 interview about WOL with Washington CBS-TV affiliate WDVM (now WUSA), Dewey proclaimed that most of the music at the time was "garbage" and that those responsible for it needed to be arrested. Strangely enough in that piece, during Dewey's on-air shift at WOL, his engineer was spinning a Barbra Streisand record. Nothing screams black like lily-white Babs.
The fact that Dewey was a fascist asshole hurt WOL's image. It might have been a reason for their divorce in 1987. Around that time, Cathy bought urban AC WMMJ "Magic 102.3" and built Radio One's empire to include stations that play the type of music that would make Dewey call 911.
But, that's not the concrete reason why I hate Urban One.
The company owns a cable network called TV One, which airs programming aimed at African Americans. And guess what's one of their offerings? The Cosby Show. Yep! They need to show a program that's funny, heartwarming, and not loaded with profanity, even though it stars one of the biggest mass rapists in Hollywood history.
So, why is TV One showing Cosby? My guess is that Hughes is playing the 'old race card. They probably think that Cosby himself is innocent because he's a wealthy black man. Not only that, but the last time I watched Cosby on TV One, it had some A-list sponsors. Wanna bet that they - like Allen - bullied them into buying ad time or else they're racist? After all, Allen recently settled a lawsuit against McDonald's, claiming they wouldn't advertise on his stations.
Same with Tyrone. Recently, I had my radio on The Drive, and they were playing R. Kelly. As many of you know, he'll be in prison until he's 85 for sex trafficking of underage women. When he was found guilty, guess who came out to defend him? Why it was Bill Cosby! He was crying that Kelly was "railroaded". BULL. SHIT! Once again, Cosby is another assclown who pushes the race card because he's the type who thinks that all black men are innocent because they are the descendants of slaves and whitey made them do this and that. OK, Harvey Weinstein was bullied as a kid for being fat. Does that mean that he gets out of jail now?
In the past several years, radio had lost too many of my heroes. Some of them were simply too fucking young to die, like Miami's Neil Rogers, Ed Schultz, and a personal friend of mine, Dave Barber, who died seven years ago this July 4th at the way-too-young age of 60. Like Schultz, Barber was originally a conservative but changed his tune after seeing his hometown of Flint, Michigan see jobs and unions disappear under Reagan. He even attacked fakes like ineffective former Flint Mayor Woodrow Stanley.
I'm happy to say that Darren is a personal friend of mine. If I had the time and space, I wouldn't mind recording Southpaws with him. I hope that he can kick cancer's ass so he can keep doing his show for years to come. The world needs more of him and fewer fakes in this world.
You know, I blog for a reason. I started Chuck69.com 23 years ago because I wanted to change. I wanted to prove myself. Yes, I was bullied and even C&D'd a few times by losers who have too much time on their hands to pick on people smaller than their own size. Growing up, I had too much taken away from me for zero reasons. And usually, those takers were all Republican. Growing up in a beet-red area of Michigan didn't help.
I moved to Grand Rapids 20 years ago and even though I was now an adult, assholes felt entitled to take the things I loved away from us. Just six months after I moved here, my favorite rock station, KLQ dropped Howard Stern while he got demoted to crappy WBBL 1340. Why? Their owner, Citadel Media hired a new general manager named Matt Hanlon who kowtowed to the west Michigan elite, who HATED Stern. When Hanlon moved Stern to 1340, his excuse was that the combination of him and afternoon blowhard "Huge" Bill Simonson would create a radio powerhouse in west Michigan. While on 1340, the local producer would often air New York commercials and come back from break late. Also, they would cut the show off at 10 a.m. straight, even in mid-sentence. KLQ on the other hand was stuck with failed morning shows and low ratings. In late 2004, WBBL finally yanked Stern off the air, not because of Hanlon, but because of an edict from Citadel head, Jan Jeffries yanking him from all stations after he started promoting Sirius on his show.
Thankfully, karma hit Hanlon. After helping to drag Citadel into bankruptcy, he was fired by the new owner Cumulus. He was then hired by Townsquare (owners of WGRD, WLHT, WFGR, and Magic 104.9) to head advertising. And then came that fateful day ten years ago when he crashed his Range Rover on the East Beltline while making a Michigan U-turn into an older couple while severely intoxicated. Yep, Hanlon was fired again and never worked another day in Grand Rapids radio. He moved to Charlotte, NC, and ran Entercom's stations there, but apparently, he's no longer in that role. I suspect that his radio days are over since he's around 60.
Of course, Stern's still on SiriusXM and doing well. KLQ, however, flipped to country as WTNR - Thunder 94.5 in 2009. Ten years later, Thunder moved to 107.3 while 94.5 became adult alternative as The Q. Today, that station's ratings are a far cry from where they were as active rock.
Yeah, karma's nice, but it won't fix the past. Once something is gone, it ain't coming back. Instead, we need to look into the future.
True, there are a million things we can do to make America great again in a real way vs. the way Drumpf wants. Yes, we can recycle, travel less, use less electricity, and so on. As for Biden, he needs to be tougher. If I were him, I would be raising taxes on the wealthy, going after the oil companies for gouging Americans, boosting the Supreme Court to 15 justices, and making Healthcare a right and not a privilege. True, he used FDR as a spirit animal during the 2020 election, but he's not FDR. He needs to be tough against fake Dems like Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema whose policies are nothing more than a chink in the armor of America.
And yes, there's that discussion of using alternative fuels vs. gas. Solar is nice and is wind power. But, the materials used to make solar panels and lithium batteries use up earth's resources.
A few years ago, I watched a documentary called "Planet of the Humans", produced by Michael Moore and directed and narrated by Jeff Gibbs, who also helped to produce Moore's films. The movie explained that green energy isn't all that green. As a matter of fact, the film talks about how they plow through forests to mine the materials needed to gather alternative energy resources like lithium.
Simply put, the movie said that the best way to stop the world's problems is not to create them.
In other words: don't have children.
You know, the baby boomers made the mistake of voting Reagan into the White House in 1980. He took away our unions, boosting of the minimum wage, and gave the wealthy more money. When their kids entered the workforce, they expected them to prosper with low wages, high rent, high gas prices, and high tuition for college. I fondly remember one such person calling me an "$8 per hour loser" because I lived in a shitty apartment. OK, so who made that happen? Oh, yeah! THEY DID!
My grandfather was 26 when my dad was born and my dad was 29 when I came into the world. Mathematically, I should have been 32 when I saw myself married with a kid. The reality was that I was in no way, shape, or form ready for children. Plus, I didn't even have a girlfriend.
Now, I'm 41 and I've never been happier with my life. I have a house, a fairly new car, and no debt sans mortgage. But, no girlfriend. But, is a relationship worth it these days in the age of Amber Turd-er, Heard, Gabby Petito, and every other woman brainwashed the wrong way by the #metoo movement into thinking that all men are pigs and need to be verbally and physically abused?
Folks, I have nine paternal cousins. All of them are childbearing age. Of those nine, four are parents. Sadly, only one of them is a decent human being. However, his son attends the same school district where four high schoolers were gunned down last November. As for the other three, two are brothers and sisters. When their mother was dying of cancer four years ago, they treated her like absolute SHIT and didn't honor her wishes when she passed. The other cousin doesn't work and relies on her mother, my aunt to pay her rent and watch her daughter, whose father is a druggie and an alcoholic. Being the fifth generation, I should have kids. But, why?
Let's say that I had a kid at 32. It would be nine today. It would probably be teased a lot at school. If they stood up to that bully, they would be sent to the principal's office while the bully - probably a rich kid - would be still roaming the halls, picking on his victims. They would probably come home with COVID-19 because of some douchebag anti-vaxxer who doesn't want what they call "poison" in their kid's system. When they get older and get a job, they'll be stuck with me because the rent's too damn high and by the time they're 25, a plot of land might be a million bucks.
Plus, dating in your 40s sucks.
When my parents divorced when I was 12, my father was back in the dating pool himself. I learned early on that single moms aren't the sharpest tool in the shed, especially those with multiple baby daddies.
Case in point, this one girl I went to school with. My dad and her mother were co-workers, so we hung out a lot. As a matter of fact, she was the first girl I slowly danced with. Well, it was at the defunct Skate World in Traverse City (later Streeters and now a sad megachurch) and technically, it was a slow skate to Poison's "Something to Believe In". Sadly, in middle school, her family Moved out of state and I was stuck in a school district where virtually none of the girls liked me. Hell, I'm forever pissed that my prom date was an ugly, fat trailer cunt from Mancelona.
Well, many years later, my dad and her mom reconnected and when I saw her for the first time in ages some years ago, I learned that the girl I slow skated with was now married with three young sons. Well, good for her. Well, she and her husband broke up and things only got worse from there. After the divorce, the kids were with their father, playing on the street when a vehicle hit the oldest child. As a result of the accident, he ended up with brain damage.
Now, IMHO, if you have a special needs child, you should give your utmost attention to that kid. However, that girl I went to school with got into another relationship with a loser and ended up giving birth to a girl. From what I've heard, the girl's father is hardly in the picture.
Well, I was given some horrific news recently, and it might be one of the hardest things I've ever typed in all my years as a blogger. The boy with brain damage - now 19 - was caught having sex with the girl, now three. Even more, the boy reportedly masturbates over 100 times per day.
The girl's mother is now planning on driving hundreds of miles to pick up the three-year-old and have her live with her until the 19-year-old is put in a home. Folks, this is a huge reason why when I'm on online dating sites, as soon as I find out that you're a mother, it's a left swipe. Hell, I'd rather date an 18-year-old who's young enough to be my daughter vs. some nasty skank my age who has four kids with four different last names.
Now, it's worth saying that true, gas prices are high and so are food prices. Plus, the stock market is in bear mode. But, under Biden, unemployment is low and the GDP has risen. The problems that we have aren't all Biden's. Gas prices internationally are way higher than they are here in America.
I applaud Biden for signing an executive order to protect women who need an abortion. However, his request for all Americans to vote Democrat in November does raise an issue, and it's the fact that not all Dems are pro-choice. Some are racist, anti-LGBTQ, and pro-gun and many are against raising taxes for the wealthy because corporations are breathing down their backs.
This is why people need to do their damn research and vote in ALL elections. Not just the general election, but primaries too. We need to vote for the most progressive Democrat in any election and not just anybody with a (D) after their name. Sadly, it bugs me to know that some Democrats like Biden and Nancy Pelosi are Catholic. Hell, they can't even take communion because the Catholic churches in America have disowned them. As a matter of fact, most of those in the Supreme Court who voted in favor of overturning Roe was Catholic. Yep! A religion that says no to aborting cells but yes to molesting children and killing Native American children in the schools that they forced them to attend.
You know, I have long disowned my former stepfamily. Most of them are a bunch of ultra-right-leaning losers who are all self-centered and have DUIs. Not only that, but at least two of them have cheated on their spouses, including my ex-stepdad. Another cheated on his wife with a prostitute and ended up giving her chlamydia. Personally, I think part of the reason why my mother fell for my former stepfather was that his father, the family patriarch has a ton of money that was made with the family tool and died, located off of a bumpy dirt road near a shithole town in northern Michigan. Oh, yeah, most of that plant's employees are stupid white trash because they're strictly anti-union. You get what you pay for.
Today, the only member of my former stepfamily that I get along with is my ex-stepsister. She's the sole leftist in that family and often feels left out because of it. Her father was my mom's ex and her mother was a white trash drunk. When she was a teenager, she came out as bisexual. She attended a small, rural high school in northern Michigan. One day, she was holding hands with another girl and a guy walked by her and called them "dykes". She went to her principal and he told her "if you want to display this behavior, this is what happens". Being an outcast led her to horrible depression, including frequently cutting her arms.
Recently, she posted on Facebook a meme loaded with Bible verses that actually support abortion. It led to her and her asshole brother having an argument. During the spat, he told her to kill herself and to cut her arms again.
Sadly, she attempted suicide by slamming her head on a door frame, leaving a giant gash on her left eye. I'm really hoping that she gets the help she needs.
You see, my stepsister did the right thing not long ago and got her tubes removed. The world doesn't need more kids from that shitty family. Hell, I grimace when I see my former stepbrother's son standing next to a poster that reads "Fuck Biden and fuck you for voting for him".
Sadly, the 2020 election was just another "lesser of the two evils" situation. Biden wasn't my first choice for president. The only reason why we had to remove Drumpf was that he was the most dangerous president we ever had. The crippling amount of deaths in America from COVID-19 and the amount of treason he launched on January 6th and during his lifetime as the de facto president made him beyond ineligible for a second term in the Oval Office. If he was still president in 2024, 1929 would probably be making a huge comeback.
However, a recent poll has shown that over 60% of all Democrats wouldn't mind if another Dem was given the nomination in 2024. All things considered, Joe ain't doing bad, but we need to do a helluva lot better. I wouldn't mind if Bernie Sanders ran again, but honestly, it's Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's turn. I think it's time for an actual president who cares about those under 50 instead of the old fucks who kissed Reagan's ass so hard that it harmed us Gen-XYZers. America needs good-paying jobs, affordable colleges, universal healthcare, equal treatment for men and women, and higher taxes for the wealthy and religious groups. We need to tell the oligarchs of the world that the small guy needs to be treated better or else this world will fail. As long as another Repuke doesn't run this country, we should be all happy.
Remember, "Idiocracy" should only be a movie, not reality.
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