Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
7.10.12 Bee-otch of the Day: people still lighting fireworks after the 4th of July
Monday, July 9, 2012
7.9.12 Heroes of the Day: Andy Griffith and Ernest Borgnine
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TWO SPECIAL HEROES OF THE DAY!
Name: Andy Griffith
Age: was 86
Occupation: actor
Last Seen: Manteo, NC
Name: Ernest Borgnine
Age: was 95
Occupation: also an actor
Last Seen: Los Angeles, CA
Awarded For: giving us years of great acting and enlightenment
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Two of Hollywood's best-known actors died this past week.
And from a 30-something's perspective, it might be a shock to some that I would rather watch an episode of The Andy Griffith Show or McHale's Navy over the whorish escapades of Jersey Shore.
True, I've only seen a handful of episodes of both shows beginning to end, I'd rather watch Andy and Opie Taylor hoist their fishing poles in the air over a bunch of fake New Jerseyites fist bump. I know, call me an old geezer TV-wise, but sometimes, TV shows that end with the long-defunct Seal of Good Practice emblem *are* better than their contemporaries.
In the case of Andy Griffith, he grew up with relatives until his working class parents could even afford a home. Despite being looked down on by his peers for being lower class, he used humor from stories his dad told him to make friends and become popular with class mates. After high school, he attended UNC-Chapel Hill, and worked on his comedy career. In 1954, one of his recorded routines became a hit on the pop charts: "What it Was, Was Football". Soon, Griffith made many TV appearances, and even starred in a hit movie, No Time For Sergeants with the man who he would be his long-time co-star, Don Knotts.
Griffith also had his dramatic side, too with his first-ever film role, 1957's A Face in the Crowd where he plays a drifter who becomes a popular TV star, Lonesome Rhodes. In the film, Rhodes becomes political- and power-hungry. It might have helped led Griffith further into his Democratic politics.
Of course, there was The Andy Griffith Show, in which he played the beloved sheriff of Mayberry, NC, Andy Taylor. Of course, his sidekicks included Knotts as Barney Fife and his beloved son Opie, played by little Ron Howard. Griffith left the show in 1968 to further pursue his movie career; the program was re-named Mayberry RFD.
Griffith's career tumbled, sadly, but bounced back in 1986 with the geezer-friendly show Matlock, which he starred in for nine seasons. He even did a few Mayberry reunion movies with Howard and Knotts in 1993 and 2003.
One of my favorite memories of The Andy Griffith Show happened several years ago here in Grand Rapids. There was a bar called Club North, and in one of the rooms, they held a goth night every Saturday night. I learned about it from their DJ, who friended me on MySpace (remember that site?). Don Knotts had died, and since they had an old projection HDTV mostly used for movies, the guy bought a DVD of old episodes of Griffith as a tribute to Knotts. He even cut through a song to announce his death.
Yeah, even the goths loved Griffith, even if he would sit back with his guitar and sing old hymns with Barney Fife in the town sheriff's office. But let's not forget that Griffith was a Democrat, frequently appearing in commercials for his local candidates and even a few ads for Medicare a few years back.
Oh, and I haven't forgotten about Ernie, either.
Like Griffith, Ernest Borgnine was an only child, but when he was just two, his parents divorced, but eventually reconciled. Although he never showed a love for acting while he was young, he got into the profession after World War II, where he served in the Navy. After appearing on stage in several productions, Ernie made his big debut in 1953 in From Here to Eternity at the age of 36. However, just a few years later in 1955, he won an Oscar for playing the title role in the film Marty.
Borgnine's movie career flourished over the years with notable roles in Ice Station Zebra and Poseidon Adventure. He gained television notoriety with the hit 1960's sitcom McHale's Navy, playing that show's lead role. In all, Borgnine appeared in hundreds of films and TV shows, most-notably recently as the voice of the Merman on Spongebob Squarepants.
But for many of us, it was Borgnine who gave us quite possibly the only good moment in Fox and Friends' long history:
Right now in Heaven, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts are probably singing "How Great Thou Art" with Andy on an acoustic guitar, while Ernest is telling them that he can play the "trombone" to that song. Nonetheless, TV has lost two of its indefatigable legends who will never be replaced.
And those two deserve a fist bump.
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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!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
6.28.12 Bee-otch of the Day: The Supreme Court
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
6.27.12 Bee-otch of the Day: NBC
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
6.26.12 Bee-otch of the Day: radio stations still carrying Bob and Tom
DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!
Name: various radio stations
Age: various
Occupation: entertainers and communicators of the community
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: STILL carrying Bob and Tom
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Once upon a time, or better yet, 15 years ago, northern Michigan had two rock stations: AOR stalwart WKLT and Classic Rock triplecast WGFM.
'GFM originated at 105.1 in Cheboygan and was simulcasted to 98.1 in Traverse City and 107.1 Cadillac. The stations' morning man was Del Reynolds, who also owned the stations, plus a few others in the Straits area and all throughout northern Michigan. Middays were handled by Greg Fletcher, Deb Michaels did the afternoon shift and nights and overnights were straight off the bird, using Westwood One's Classic Rock format.
However, in 1998, Reynolds decided to sell his stations to a small upstart company called Calibre Communications. When the company's president, David Gariano asked Reynolds who should handle mornings, he told Gariano that Bob and Tom had just entered syndication and that their careers started at the long-defunct WJML in Petoskey.
Needless to say, Reynolds' suggestion was a winning one in the beginning. Bob and Tom quickly became the #1 morning program in northern Michigan, and helped WGFM - now rebranded as The Bear - overtake WKLT's #2 spot in the Arbitron ratings.
When Bob and Tom debuted on The Bear, I was a teen living in the Torch Lake region, and man did I hate them. I was a Howard Stern guy who loved him from his E! show and yes, Private Parts and felt that these two geezers were just doing a carbon copy of the show to drunk rednecks. As a matter of fact, it was one of the big reasons why I started a crappy little WebTV website called Bring Howard Stern to Northern Michigan Radio and TV which evolved into (you guessed it) this crappy little website.
But how time passes. I've since moved to Grand Rapids, Howard Stern's now on northern Michigan via SiriusXM (and let's not forget HowardTV and America's Got Talent) and thanks to Janet Jackson's little nip-slip, Bob and Tom - like all other shows syndicated by Clear Channel - have had to cool it with their bits.
Oh, and KLT finally hired a morning show that finally gave Bob and Tom some needed competition: Omelette and Finst - um, Friends.
While Omelette and whoever tend to act and feel young, not to mention the fact that they're local, Indianapolis-based Bob and Tom are showing their age. According to some sources, KLT is trumping Bob and Tom in the mornings, although B&T are still in second place.
But the question is: is second place good enough for a morning show that's balls-out expensive?
Recently, Del Reynolds - who re-took control of most of the stations he sold to Calibre in 1998 for a tiny fraction of the price he sold them for - took to the popular Michigan Radio and TV Buzzboard to reveal that Bob and Tom ain't cheap to air. As a matter of fact, he claims that for the four stations that air The Bear's format, Bob and Tom cost his stations a hair over six figures just to air in a mid-small-sized market like northern Michigan.
That's right! $100,000 to air a crappy sat-fed morning show in northern Michigan. Somewhere, WKLT's staff and management are laughing. Hell, even I'm smiling inside knowing that it's more expensive to air a horrid syndicated show over just hiring two local guys to handle mornings.
But it's not just The Bear that's seeing less dollars coming in thanks to Bob and Tom's high price. Here in Grand Rapids, Clear Channel-owned WBFX - 101.3 The Fox carried the show up until a few years ago, but canned it due to its high cost. Yes, even Clear Channel - who owns Bob and Tom - has canned the show because of its cost. However, Townsquare-owned 98.7 WFGR took over the show; which is somewhat ironic since they also own 97.9 WGRD, the home of Free Beer and Hot Wings. However, there's another rumor that even Townsquare themselves are tired of B&T; there was speculation in the radio world that Townsquare flipped 1410 WNWZ from Spanish to all-Comedy as "Funny 1410" to move Bob and Tom there until their contract ran out. Clear Channel got word and put an end to it.
Oh, and 1410 broadcasts with a whopping 1,000 watts day and 48 watts at night. I guess they were trying to make a play from the Matt Hanlon playbook in regards to what he did to Howard Christmas 2003 only to fall on their asses.
Ya know, I find it funny that when Howard was on terrestrial radio, only 50 stations - mostly corporate-owned stations in bigger markets - ever dared to carry the show. I've heard every excuse in the book: "His show's too expensive!" "Advertisers hate him!" "The Chamber of Commerce will abandon us!" "His show doesn't reflect the views of station management!" And so on. Now, many top-ranked syndicated shows like Bob and Tom and especially Rush Limbaugh are now charging stations top dollar to carry their crappy programs, and the real victims end up being the station owners and people trying to break into the already-difficult world of radio. Yes, some of these owners will fight to the finish to keep their listeners and ratings up. In The Bear's case, it explains why that station only has one local jock in the afternoon and the rest of the schedule is made up of out-of-state voicetrackers from Dial Global (the old Westwood One).
If only they got Finster....
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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!
Monday, June 25, 2012
6.25.12 Bee-otch of the Day: Jerry Sandusky
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