11.28.11 Hero of the Day: Fred Meijer

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK! ------------------- ALL THIS WEEK, CHUCK69.COM WILL HONOR NOTHING BUT HEROES! TODAY'S SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY IS.... Name: Frederik Gerhard Hendrik Meijer Age: would have been 92 next month Occupation: former chairman, Meijer Last Seen: deceased Awarded For: not really being some ruthless rich man --- Normally, I hand out the Bee-otch of the Day everyday, but this week, I've found a few folks deserving of being heroes. These people changed our lives and made good decisions that, well, made our lives better. Our first choice was a man who, yes, was a conservative Republican whose innovation helped shut down several mom-n-poppers and died a wealthy man, but nonetheless, he was one of the lesser of all the evils when it came to the 1%. While the many brave souls were pushing, shoving and even pepper spraying their way to get the best bargains on Black Friday, Fred Meijer suffered a stroke. Later in the evening, long-time friend and former WOOD-TV 8 achor Susanne Geha announced on Facebook and Twitter that he had passed away. The official announcement was made from the family was made at 11 p.m. Fred Meijer came from humble beginnings in Greenville, MI, 40 miles north of Grand Rapids. When he was 14 years old, his barber father, Hendrik, a Dutch immigrant, owned a building that housed his barber shop and a space that he leased out to others. With the Great Depression causing people to not want to own a business, Meijer decided to purchase $300 of groceries on credit from a warehouse and sold them for little profit margin. Fred helped with the grocery business, doing everything from bagging groceries, stocking shelves to mopping floors. Eventually, young Fred became the chairman of the company his father created on a whim. The Greenville store expanded ninefold until fire reduced it to smithereens in 1946. Other locations were added in Ionia, Cedar Springs and yes, Grand Rapids in the 1940's and 50's. He even met his wife, Lena, who was a cashier at a Meijer store in the 1940's. However, Fred Meijer's greatest achievement came in the early 1960's when he convinced his father to build a hybrid grocery and retail super store in Grand Rapids. Hendrik disapproved of the concept, so Fred asked him, "if you were my age, would you do it?" "Yes," said father, and the Thrifty Acres concept was born. Their first store opened at the corner of 28th and Kalamazoo in Grand Rapids in 1962, the same year the first Walmart opened in Bentonville, AR. Thrifty Acres was a smash from the get-go, and all their new store from that point on would be big 150,000-square-foot monsters that provided one-stop shopping and low prices. Fred Meijer formally retired as Meijer chairman in 1990, giving the role to his sons Hank and Doug. True, Meijer does have its sad and gloomy side. The company has downsized its staff over the years, there's still thugs and beggars annoying customers at their newly-rebuilt 28th and K'zoo store, they tried to recall elected officials in the Traverse City suburb of Acme only because they didn't allow a new store to be built there, right-winged hate dominates their book department and they put blinders over Cosmopolitan Magazine at the checkout to please the Religious Right. But when your company makes money - nearly $15 billion in revenue this year - the bad's not that important. I'm not a religious man by any means, but if the 1% picked up a Bible once in a while, they would see the error of their ways. One of my favorite stories is about the young rich man and his chat with Jesus. He asked him what he could do to better serve him, and Jesus told him to sell off all of his possessions since it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven. Even though he was the 60th richest person in America when he died with a fortune of $5 billion, Fred Meijer did have money, but not many possessions. Material things didn't matter to him. He lived in a modest home and drove an older car. When he was young, Fred learned from his father the importance of giving people the most for their dollar and even giving back to the people who helped him move up in life. So, instead of living in multiple mansions and driving cars that would have given Alberto del Rio a run for his money, Meijer gave back. His notable contributions included the Frederik Meijer Gardens, a botanical park. He even donated to several colleges and schools, including Grand Valley State University. He donated many acres of land to the school and even the building that houses their WGVU PBS and NPR stations. After a bypass operation 15 years ago, Fred donated $16 million to Spectrum Health to build their Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center. He even donated $10 million to restore the aging Majestic Theatre downtown. It's not known the exact amount of money Fred Meijer spent over the years, but it might be enough to be on the Lord's good side. In his 92 years on Earth, Fred probably did more good than bad. He helped everybody from college kids to fans of NPR and even folks down on their luck by having them work a few hours at one of his stores. Like I said earlier, their hypermarts did run some smaller stores out of business, but when you look at their history, Meijer was a small mom-n-pop in the beginning. But, it was a crapshoot from an enterprising man like Fred Meijer who made them one of the midwest's largest retailers, with 197 locations and 72,000 employees. ---   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!

THE BACK PAGE: Kevin Matthews canned from LAV

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KEVIN MATTHEWS CANNED FROM LAV
Plus, WNWZ flips to Comedy

Wow. Within the past few weeks, radio's become fun again.

Sadly, not in a positive way.

On Thursday, Kevin Matthews announced on his Facebook page that he had been let go from 97 LAV-FM. He had been holding down mornings on the Classic Rock station for six years. Effective immediately, mornings are now handled by LAV vet Tony Gates and Michelle McKormick.

The Warwick Davis lookalike originally worked at LAV in the 1980's, but was lured away by a station in St. Louis. Then, it was off to Chicago, where he worked at WLUP, WXCD (now WLS-FM) and Howard Stern affiliate WCKG 105.9. Due to getting fired from poor ratings in later years, he ended up doing internet radio broadcasts declaring Chicago radio "dead".

In 2005, he came back to LAV, despite morning man Tony Gates getting good ratings. However, LAV's ratings have been sliding these past few years, especially due to WGRD's Free Beer and Hot Wings in the morning. Matthews also announced in 2008 that he's battling Multiple Sclerosis, limiting his schedule.

Matthews even created shockwaves in December when Citadel fired WMMQ 94.9 Lansing morning man Rich Michaels to syndicate his show to that station. However, the move didn't last long; just a few weeks ago, Cumulus lifted the show from 'MMQ and is back to doing a local show in the morning. Michaels is now hosting a talk show in Miami using his real name, Rich Minaya.

With WLAV parent Citadel Media being sold to Cumulus a few months ago, they've been doing some housecleaning. The biggie so far has been GM Matt Hanlon not being included in the merger deal; he's now VP of Advertising for WGRD parent Townsquare Media.Without a doubt, there could be more changes to come.

Oh, and it appears that the daily radio program hosted by Verve Pipe lead singer Brian Vander Ark is off LAV, too.

In a way Matthews' firing is no surprise to many. He was one of Hanlon's stable of has-beens and big-market rejects - ie Dave and Geri, Michael Grey, Ron and Don, and oh, yes, HUUUUUGE - that he felt could bring in the ratings for his stations. While many felt that Matthews' show was a welcome addition to LAV, many felt that he was nothing more than a tool for Hanlon, who made him Director of Program Development at Citadel and the PD of 92.5 The Outlaw.

But, in the end, it's up to Cumulus to fix many of Hanlon's mistakes, and Matthews was one of them. I don't know the guy personally and I feel bad that he's battling MS, but Kevin has seen better days. Will he work in radio again? Only time will tell. However, I don't think it'll be in Grand Rapids. Chicago? Maybe. Who knows? Mancow's daytimer might be looking for folks.

But of course, there's the trillion-dollar question: is Huge next on the chopping block? That's a good question. Bear in mind that Simonson's syndicated, albeit to a bunch of smaller stations that otherwise air programming from ESPN, Fox Sports or Yahoo! Sports Radio (the former Sporting News Radio/One On One Sports). If Huge gets the shaft, it's no big deal. It's the Red Wings and Lions that are keeping WBBL alive, not that fat ass. I'll betcha that even without Sean and Killer, Ryan Terpstra on 96.1 ESPN get maul the fat one back to Sparta.

--

Speaking of funny (but true), yes, WNWZ 1410 is now all Comedy as "Funny 1410". The station launched sometime after 11 a.m. Monday morning (it was off the air for some reason). The Townsquare Media station was previously Regional Mexican "La Maquina Musical" and was the first 24/7 Spanish station in town. However, with two other stations in town reaching the Spanish audience, 24-hour WMFN 640 and daytimer WMJH 810 and Grand Rapids only having a 7% Spanish audience, the flip was made. Oddly enough, WMFN aired some Comedy when it was talk several years ago. 1410's flip to Comedy was made weeks before this year's LaughFest, which is scheduled to feature Whoopi Goldberg and Sinbad. IMO, it might not be a huge ratings grabber, so who knows?  

11.17.11 Bee-otch of the Day: Parents Television Council

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK! ------------------- Name: Parents Television Council Age: 16 Occupation: right-winged group of maniacs Last Seen: Alexandria, VA Bee-otched For: trying to get Howard Stern off America's Got Talent --- One of America's most-notorious decency groups is at it again. Earlier in the week, the Parents Television Council made a statement that if NBC were to hire Howard Stern to replace Piers Morgan on America's Got Talent, they would be "alienating families" and "missing out on tens of millions of dollars in advertising revenue". The news came late last week that Stern is rumored to replace Morgan on the talent show. Morgan is leaving the program to focus on his ailing CNN show. Rumors has it that Stern could receive $15 million per season to judge the show. The PTC claims that Stern could bring profanity to the family-friendly show; its president was even asked in an interview that Stern played on Wednesday's show what he felt about George Carlin, and he said that he was gentile on Shining Time Station, but Stern's style is too crude. What's even funnier is that Winter used the words "pissed off" in the interview. So much for family values. Ah, yes, the PTC. The same group whose 12,000 alleged members sent letters to the FCC after the infamous Janet Jackson nip slip at the Super Bowl while almost nobody else could care less. They love making mountains out of molehills. After all, government-owned CBC and BBC never has problems showing skin and profanity on their channels. Yet, we're stuck with the FCC and their abhorrent and unconstitutional policies that only matter to less than 1% of the population. One thing about the PTC is that some of their members - including Billy Ray Cyrus and TV producer Gary Johnson - were all involved with the now-defunct PAX network. OK, so if they claim that Americans are dying for wholesome, family fun, then why did the PAX network went belly-up? Sorry, but the 99ers have spoken. If Howard Stern on AGT scares off some lily-white Jebus freaks, let it. If advertisers leave, let 'em. I'll do my duty to boycott those who spit on him. Plus, Howard will be sitting next to Sharon Osbourne! And she's not vulgar? The religious right: in their feeble minds, Howard Stern IS the motherfuckin' Antichrist. ---   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!

11.16.11 Bee-otch of the Day: Jerry Sandusky

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK! ------------------- Name: Jerry Sandusky Age: 67 Occupation: coach-turned-pedo Last Seen: Pennsylvania Bee-otched For: crying that he's not guilty --- I'll betcha that the jokes we were telling about Michael Jackson back in the 1990's can now be reused today for Jerry Sandusky. Except, of course, the one that compares him to a plastic bag. On Monday night's Rock Center on NBC, Jerry Sandusky was being interviewed by Bob Costas about his alleged sexual allegations with young boys. On the horn, Sandusky claimed that yes, he did some borderline inappropriate actions with the boys of his Second Mile program, but nothing sexual. Ummmmm, he still showered with young boys. Gross. Look, I'm a firm believer that yes, men share the same privates, but having young boys shower with an older man? That's sick. I wouldn't surprised if Sandusky's lying out his ass. If he's horseplaying with young kids in the shower naked, then he's a pedo, plain and simple. Just my honest opine. I hope to God that Jerry Sandusky and all of his protectors - ie Joe Paterno and Mike McQuery - will rot in hell for all the damage they did to all those children. Because of their little secrets, PennState will have a giant gash that won't be healed quickly. Of course, the punchline to the plastic bag joke is that one's harmful to children and one's used to carry groceries. Sadly, that won't apply to Mr. Sandusky. ---   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!

11.15.11 Bee-otch of the Day: the Republican Party

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DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK! -------------------

Name: The Republican Party
Age: 157
Occupation: right-winged pricks
Last Seen: Washington, DC
Bee-otched For: not giving up

---

It's one year away from the presidential elections and I project that Barack Obama will be the winner.

By a loooooooonnnnnngshot.

Watching the morons who think they could win the 2012 elections is almost nothing more than watching a bad Three Stooges movie; even the worst movie of theirs with Curly Joe is way funnier than these pricks going on and on about wanting to lower taxes for the wealthy and forgetting their lines doing so. Yes, we all know about Rick Perry's blunder last week, which shows that he's just as stupid as the man he replaced as governor of Texas, George W. Bush.

Of course, we shouldn't get started on Herman Cain, who actually created a plan that would get votes unlike his fellow candidates. But in the great words of that Obama-hating preacher Rev. Manning, "HERMAN CAIN IS A MACK DADDY!" Unlike Obama, when he dresses up in a nice jacket and hat, he *actually* looks like the mackiest of all pimp daddies. Plus, as evidenced by Perry's blunder, even he can't comprehend what's going on, especially knowing Obama's stance on Libya.

Which now leaves the Republican Party with Mitt Romney, who has no chance in hell that he'll be president. Why? Because he's a Mormon. OOOOOOOHHHH! But that dang 'ol Obama's a flippin' Muslim! Prove it. Yep, just more hate from the right.

Even though the election's still a year away, I'm already seeing attack ads. The big one right now is from Americans For Prosperity, WHICH IS FUNDED BY THE KOCH BROTHERS, which slams the president because taxpayers were forced to foot the bill for ill-fated Solyndra. I wouldn't doubt if that company bombed only because Koch is a $100 billion per year company and they'll fight tooth and nail to make sure that more pollution is pumped into the air instead of people driving around in cars that uses the sun's rays for fuel instead of fossil fuels. I think we're still ready to have solar power for things other than calculators, don't you?

I know. We're still living under the aegis of George W. Bush's mistakes. The current batch of dolts running for president just don't have a plan in order that can blow Obama away. Even with a 9% unemployment rate and many Americans trying to guard themselves from foreclosure and/or bankruptcy, I think the real truth is that the 2012 election will echo the 1996 election between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Voter turnout will be low, only because most of us don't like our choices. However, many might not be happy with Obama now, but remember, the same happened with Clinton in 1996. The end result? Clinton left office with a surplus that was only squandered away by Dubya.

Just a thought.

---  

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!

11.14.11 Bee-otch of the Day: everybody involved or is supporting the PennState sex scandal

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK! ------------------- Names: various Ages: various Occupations: various Last Seen: mainly in Pennsylvania Bee-otched For: either participating or supporting those involved in the Penn State sex scandal --- Somebody who I follow on Twitter said that if an older woman who is into younger men are "cougars", are older men who are into boys "Nittany Lions"? Last Tuesday, Joe Paterno, who was one of college football's most-prolific coaches and led the Penn State Nittany Lions football team to two national championships was fired from the team after 46 seasons for his involvement in the horrific sex abuse scandal that has rocked State College. Paterno - who outlived both my grandfathers - had a 409-136-3 record coaching the Lions. JoePa's firing without a doubt saddened and angered his supporters. Riots ensued later in the evening with supporters and students alike tipping over TV station trucks. One of the PennState trustees who fired him and college president Graham Spanier claimed that they had no choice to fire them because they knew about former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky's years of sexual abuse with young boys. Sandusky was indicted on 40 counts of sex with eight young boys as young as seven years old. He would often shower with them, performing sex acts on them. One witness to Sandusky's crimes was assistant coach Mike McQuery, who told Paterno of Sandusky's abuse. Paterno did report to his athletic director, but the only action taken was that Sandusky was no longer allowed to bring children into the athletic building. The children were a part of Sandusky's Second Mile program, designed to help troubled young boys. He retired from coaching in 1999 after 31 years serving as Paterno's assistant. He remained as an emeritus with the football program, even with Paterno and McQuery's knowledge of his sexual abuse. With Paterno's firing, Tom Bradley is now interim head coach. They lost Saturday's game against Nebraska, 17-14. Players for both teams bowed in prayer to honor the victims or Sandusky's sex crimes. The tragedy is that Sandusky's a sicko, and Paterno and McQuery and others kept allowing him with his escapades. They made sure that Penn State's image was kept sanitized over the years instead of telling the truth about Sandusky's sickness. Even worse, there's still people in Pennsylvania angry over Paterno's firing because he's a national icon who made PennState what it is today. Good guy or not, Paterno fucked up. Instead of preventing more actions from Sandusky, he was more about preserving the Lions' image. Because he and the rest of PennState refused to do anything about Sandusky, they let it fly and Sandusky's abuse continued. Sorry, but JoePa's image is tarnished for life. Anybody who supports a man who knew about this child abuse for such a long time needs their head examined. In child abuse, there are no champions. ---   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!

THE BACK PAGE: Northern Star Sells Back to Reynolds

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! NORTHERN STAR SELLS BACK TO REYNOLDS NSB exits radio at a loss Within the next few weeks, Traverse City-based Northern Star Broadcasting will be no more. The company, which owns northern Michigan radio stations Real Rock 105/95-5, The Bear 98.1/107.1/94.5/93.9, Big Country 102.9 and tiny WCBY 1240 Cheboygan has agreed to pull out of the unprofitable world of radio altogether by selling those stations to the man they bought them from in 1998, Del Reynolds. Yep! Del Reynolds is back to being a player in northern Michigan radio again after years of playing engineer and even starting up a Christian station in Mackinaw City that eventually ended up 1) kicking him out due to insider politics and 2) getting sold to Interlochen. Already, Del and his wife Mary are employed at NSB as VP of Operations/Programming and GM/VP of Sales/Marketing/Promotions, respectively.  Reynolds has been called one of northern Michigan's most-beloved broadcasters, starting at WIDG St. Ignace in the late 60's as a teenager to eventually owning that station, plus the stations he sold in 1998. However, he sold those stations to what was Calibre Communications, which was based in Chicago and run by a man named David Gariano. The deal fell through, but a new company was formed to take over the Reynolds stations: Northern Star Broadcasting. When NSB finally purchased the stations in 1998, they paid $7 million. However, it's been a rocky ride for NSB. They also purchased a boatload of stations in the UP, ran them into the ground, and sold them to Sovereign Communications for way less then what they paid for them. In the case for their northern Michigan sticks, it's been the same. For an example: in 2000, The Bear was beating the crap out of KLT in the mornings with Bob and Tom, The Zone (pretty much what's now Real Rock) was finally finding its voice by eliminating chick pop for real Modern Rock and Big Country was holding its own. A decade later, The Bear is now an average classic rocker with B&T getting pummeled by KLT's Omelette and Finster in the ratings, Real Rock has music stability issues and Big Country is, well, Big Country. Plus, they only recently finally got the embarrassment known as WIHC 97.9 Newberry off their hands, selling it to a ministry for $150,000. In the end, NSB sold their stations back to Reynolds for a whopping $1.8 million. But then again, I don't blame NSB for selling back to Reynolds. After all, the economy - especially in northern Michigan - sucks and if I owned a radio station up north, I'd have headaches, too.  God only knows what Del and Mary have in store, but for starters, he already owns a new station in Cheboygan, WQEZ 97.7, which is stunting with Christmas music. What will happen to the rest of his stations will be exciting to watch after the holidays, especially since when he sold out to Calibre/NSB, they made many changes here and there (ie their infamous "K-Garth" stunt when they flipped KC Country to Big Country, or when they flipped Smooth Jazz "Coast FM" to The Zone).  One thing I do remember is when Calibre flipped Coast FM to The Zone, Del was pissed since it was run off a satellite and it made money with upscale advertisers. Will this mean the end for Real Rock? Heck, The Bear's seen better days. Who knows? But one thing's for certain: a radio station owner's like a magician: they never tell.