Turning the Titanic

I’m finally moving away from wingnut talk radio.  It’s run it’s course when NPR and the PBS Newshour mention teabaggers more than they do.

Bill Bennett still reminds us for years that he was in the Reagan administration, never pointing out that he has been out of a position to make much of anything for quite a long time.  Why didn’t he destroy his own job at the Department of Education when he could have?  A question never to be answered.

Joe PagLIARulo subs for Glenn Beck and only has one ball, but he recycles his show so much it makes me think that guy is lazy.  Same songs, same lingo, same thing day after day.  For those on laxative, I guess it’s reassuring.  Otherwise, “livin’ the dream” and “get off my phone” coming from a lazy ass WATB is too much to take.

And then there is Michael Berry.  Did someone tell the new guy that the “voice” of Texas radio is actually a state senator?  KTRH and KPRC radio are so screwed up that the Martini guy is going for the FOX model.  Which isn’t working out to well.

Michael Berry is good for making sure that you know 1) people got their mug shots in Obama t-shirts (old) 2) every person that he has a problem with is BLACK 3)he is much more entertained by himself than anyone else is.  Any wonder why the morning show takes more calls than he does?

Sorry no links, bu this will tell more than I can say.  Only problem is that Rick Perry is not included.  Michael Berry has fluffed that man for years, but now expects his listeners to believe he has no horse in the race.  Right.

Mitt Romney
“Governor Romney offers his prayers to all victims of child abuse. The tragedy of the death of a small child shocks all decent Americans.”
— Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, in an email to Ben Smith.

Sarah Palin
Once again we see, with our nation in crisis, President Obama stands by and does idly nothing while an injustice is committed here in this glorious nation of ours. It’s almost strange that the president has not yet made one statement on the issue of the death of young Caylee Anthony. Why the strange silence, Mr. President?
— Sarah Palin
12,429 people like this.

Newt Gingrich
@newtgingrich
tragic to see justice not served. now is a great time to screen my and @CallyGingrich film Rediscovering God in America http://bit.ly/padmWP
51 minutes ago via web

Herman Cain
“I can promise you Casey Anthony and anyone else who I think might’ve killed their children will have no business in a Herman Cain administration. President Cain would look her right in the eyes and ask her point blank if she killed that little girl, we’d get right to the bottom of it.”
— Cain, addressing a Tea Party group in Iowa.

Michele Bachmann
BACHMANN: Well, I’ve been visiting all the primary states, and I’ve been talking to people, and people all over the place are asking me, why, in Barack Obama’s America, someone who murders a baby who happens to be white doesn’t get punished. And Sean, I’ve been on the front lines, and I know people are afraid not just of the massive debt created by the Pelosi-Reid government, they’re worried about the Muslim Brotherhood, which has clear ties to terror groups dedicated to creating a worldwide Islamic caliphate, and they’re worried that Eric Holder’s Justice Department isn’t going to do anything about it if the Brotherhood or another group comes for their children.

HANNITY: Very interesting stuff. Thanks for coming on, Congresswoman. We always appreciate it.

BACHMANN: Thanks, Sean.

Freaks.

From now until I decide differently, this blog will be about the garden, cats, and pups.

That is all.

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I have a prediction — Houston radio edition

I read this at the Chronicle:

Denver talk show host Lois Melkonian tells the Denver Post she has left KOA-AM in that city to take a position in Houston, reportedly with Clear Channel Communications, but specifics remained unconfirmed Thursday.

Melkonian did not return a phone call placed through her agent, Clear Channel Houston GM Eddie Martiny is on vacation and unavailable for comment and AM operations director Bryan Erickson failed to return a telephone call and an e-mail seeking details on the report.

Melkonian hosted The Ride Home on the Clear Channel-owned station with Broncos play-by-play announcer Dave Logan, and a Denver radio chat board reported that Melkonian would land at KTRH (740 AM), one of Clear Channel’s three AM stations in Houston along with KPRC (950 AM) and KBME (790 AM).

KTRH’s only local slots at the moment are its morning news block from 5 to 9 a.m. and Michael Berry’s show from 5 to 7 p.m. (pending Astros pre-emptions). KPRC (950 AM) airs San Antonio host Joe Pagliarulo from 6 to 9 a.m. and Michael Garfield, Outlaw Dave and Berry from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Melkonian came to Denver in 2005 after working at several stations in California, including KGO-TV and KCBS-AM in San Francisco, where she was a member of the station’s news team that won a Peabody Award for its coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

I’m thinking she will replace one or the other of the morning news readers, Lana or J.P.  Both have been around for a very long time, and instead of continuing to pretend like they are still actually reporting news (as opposed to mouthing wingnut talking points), I could see how one or the other or both of them would want to retire.

One thing I can’t see is KTRH or KPRC breaking up their week day monopoly of white male talkers.   That’s not gonna happen.

I mean seriously, Michael Berry has expanded to San Antonio, Baton Rouge, and Portland!  What’s next?  Little Rock?

This past week I listened to the news waiting to hear of a massive ICE raid at Reliant Stadium or of crime spiking in the area as Michael Berry  had related on his show.  (Remember, he didn’t really say anything like that.   Some “Hispanic” law enforcement officer said it to him and he was just repeating it.)  Nothing of the kind happened.  Should Michael Berry lose some credibility over this?  Certainly.  Will he?  Nope.  This sort of thing just increases his creds.  Just like whining about having too many listeners does.  His fans are like opened mouth fish on a feeding frenzy.  They want more!

This new lady from Denver is not going to get a “talk show.”  She’ll either be a “news” anchor or a reporter.  That’s my prediction.

Rain

We got a little bit last night.  Had I been awake when it finally came, I would have danced in it.

The garden is struggling with the utter lack of it.  We’ve enjoyed two squash casseroles, finally some tomatoes and some peppers, banana, jalapeño and cayenne.  I watered everything but the second bed, the garage bed and the sweet potato.  I’ll water them in the morning.

There’s a slight chance for rain this weekend, but I will water everything in the front Saturday morning.  The grass looks ok and the Pom has about 10 fruit on it.   The poor orchid tree may not make it back from two freezes.  I will try to save it.

Rick Perry’s God ignored him and brought no rain.  I have no god to appeal to.  Only politicians and the hope that some will see the error of their ways.

When I was a girl, I moved irrigation pipe three times a day for my grandfather — with my older sister.  We would get up in the morning and move the pipe from the evening before.  It was full of water from the well and my sister had to lift her end up to empty out the water so we could carry it, without stomping on  cotton plants, the eight rows up to then set it down and lock it into the pipe we had just laid.

It was hard work and I did it from when I was a child strong enough to pick up a twenty foot long irrigation pipe until The Western Company poisoned my grandfather’s well water when I was a teenager.

West Texas — where my parents and grandparents are from — as am I in the end — has always depended on ground water.  Here in Houston, I’ve always depended on rain.  We really need some rain.  Prayer is not going to do it.  It may even be too late.

While so many worry over the debt that two unfunded wars and an unfunded pharma give away created, the country suffers from lack of rain or the torrential onslaught of torrential storms.  And some think that a helping hand for our own people must be paid for, having voted for the certain death of so many foreigners.  The most vulnerable in our country must pay for the millions given away to Dick Cheney and his friends, who worship at the feet of a man who is a simpleton, much like George W. Bush.

For all of those people who cheered Netanyahu, Cheney and Bush robbed you.  And you don’t even care.  Just keep following this guy and his gnat brigade:

Sad News for Michael Berry (I’m Laughing Inside)

Poor Michael Berry.  He’s got more Facebook friends than Joe PagLIARulo, he’s been on the air here in Houston longer, and he’s expanded to Portland, Baton Rouge and San Antonio, but Joe PagLIARulo has bested him in the worst possible way:  PagLIARulo made Talkers Magazine’s “Heavy Hundred” this year and Michael Berry didn’t.  Hell, even Chris Baker made Talkers top 250.  Michael Berry is nowhere to be found.  (Joe PagLIARulo also made a suspiciously similar list at another outfit — both have the exact same disclaimer.  Smells like wingnut wellfare to me.)

I remember when Michael Berry was crying about how many people were worrying over Joel Osteen’s wife throwing a fit on an airplane while talking about the same for three hours.

That was before Joe PagLIARulo was even in Houston.

Michael Berry tries so hard, but Joe PagLIARulo just coasts by him.  I wonder if it has anything to do with where each of them adopted their kids from.  There is really no other explanation for this, except that Joe PagLIARulo paid someone a bit more and got rewarded.  They are both equally loathsome.

In other news:  I’M ON VACATION!!11!!!!!11!!!!1!

I almost forgot: Radio Ratings out today!

Houston-Galveston is the 6th largest market in the nation, but Micheal Berry’s radio stations can only garner a fraction of the listeners.  Only about 500K out of 3+ million people listen to one of his stations and the other that he is on for a longer amount of time only catches about 250K.

Given that other stations capture listeners in the millions, this doesn’t seem to be anything for Berry or Joe PagLIARilo to brag about, but we all know they will.

A Radio Change for Me

For many years now, I have listened mostly to wingnut radio.  It was a way to hear what they might be going on about and then to write about it.

The news in the last few weeks, as well as the wingnuts’ reaction — or lack thereof to it — has decided my radio choices for me.  There is nothing the the early morning guy won’t cover that the one on the afternoon before didn’t, and then there is just this loop of sameness, even with the same people calling in.

AM talk radio in Houston is dying, otherwise they wouldn’t be trying so hard.

I’ve already shifted back to KUHF for the morning and evening drive.  Now all I have to do is dial up KPFT to catch Al Jazeera in the morning.  I’ve been accessing their live blogs and live broadcasts for the last month and a half.

I’ll still check in to see what Bennet or PagLIARulo might have to say, but I have changed my primary radio listening.

It might not mean anything to anyone but me, but I think I am not alone.  The GOP and their step children teatards have been tone deaf to how much what happened in Egypt means.  They couldn’t even bring it up at their *WE LOVE RON PAUL* convention — that gets more pub than it should.

President Obama is moving forward.  I’d much rather follow that than the recycled bullshit on AM talk radio.

You Tell Me if This is Weird

From our local wingnut talk stations here in Houston:

Operation Desert Storm: 20 Years Later

Analysts: withdraw was the right thing to do.

By Nik Rajkovic

Monday, January 17, 2011

It has been two decades since Americans became glued to their radios and television sets as coalition forces began to bomb Baghdad.

Just like many of us, retired Army General Bill McClain also was watching the coverage on television, but from inside a briefing room at the Pentagon.

He says although the first assault came as somewhat of a surprise, the U.S. military began preparing the day Iraq invaded Kuwait.

“We knew it was going to come, because Saddam Hussein wouldn’t give up on anything,” says McClain.  “It was a good feeling to say now this is getting started.”

In what appeared to be an easy victory for U.S. forces, some still question the decision to pull back without taking out Iraq’s leadership, adding we could have avoided the most recent conflicts in the Middle East.

But Texas A & M military history professor Joseph Dawson says Bush One made the correct call.

“The American military as strong as it was,” says Dawson.  “We still did not have complete plans for occupying the country.”

For those who argue we could have prevented going back or even the events of 9/11, former ambassador Ryan Crocker disagrees.

“I would see no connection at all to 9/11,” Crocker says.  “Osama bin Laden simply didn’t care about those things, operating on a completely different ideological structure.”

In fact, all agree that the time between the two Gulf Wars allowed U.N. sanctions to set it, and U.S. officials to develop a plan for occupancy before Operation Iraqi Freedom got underway in 2003.

What?

Again, what?

Breaking up the radio monopoly? That sounds good.

I saw this article earlier today and it made me stop for a second:

Submitted by jonathan on Sat, 2010-12-18 15:21

With the clock ticking toward the end of this year’s Congress, the Senate on Saturday passed a new law which will enable community groups, churches and schools across the country to establish new non-commercial, low-power FM radio stations in their cities and towns.

The Local Community Radio Act, which will allow the FCC to issue possibly thousands of new noncommercial LPFM radio licenses, earned broad, bipartisan support after some ten years of organizing by grassroots media democracy advocates from coast to coast. Backers of the bill included a stupefying range of civil rights groups, religious organizations, musicians, unions and garage-bound radio dreamers around the country.

Washington State elected officials played a pivotal role in passing the bill into law; Senator Maria Cantwell championed the bill in the Senate, and House cosponsors included Washington Rep. Jay Inslee.

“This is a huge win for communities across the northwest and across the country who have been pining for more and better local radio, more support for local music and more diversity on the airwaves,” said Jonathan Lawson of Reclaim the Media, a Seattle-based media justice organization which has worked alongside many other advocacy groups since 2002 to expand community access to media, including LPFM. “Senator Cantwell deserves our thanks for seeing this through to the end.”

The FCC initially created the Low power FM service radio in 2002, as a way to counter the dramatic consolidation of radio ownership which followed the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and the resulting drop in diverse programming and local voices. However, pressure from commercial broadcasters quickly led Congress to impose substantial barriers to LPFM, so that only a relatively small number of stations were able to launch, and mostly in rural areas.

The new law removes most of those barriers, creating the opportunity for many more stations to occupy unused space on the FM dial. LPFM stations are noncommercial, must be operated by a local nonprofit, religious organization or public institution, and are limited to 100 watts.

Northwest groups who have been able to build and launch LPFM stations have demonstrated the tremendous utility and power of low-power radio. In Woodburn, Oregon, KPCN allows immigrant farmworkers to share news, information and music in Spanish and several other Latin American languages. Spokane’s Thin Air Radio and Idaho’s Radio Free Moscow provide those communities with local public affairs and homegrown music programs—while providing new broadcasters with a place to learn the tools of the trade.

The new law is a landmark achievement for public interest media advocates who have been working on this bill for years. Galvanized by the trailblazing work of the Prometheus Radio Project and the Media Access Project, a host of other groups deserve credit for helping wage the struggle for LPFM: the Future of Music Coalition, Media Alliance, Reclaim the Media, the Chicago Independent Radio Project, Free Press, United Church of Christ Office of Communication, Inc, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Media and Democracy Coalition, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Benton Foundation and many others.

This is where radio is going. People are tired of radio being monopolized by a few voices.  Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck across the country is slowly coming to an end.  And those who think they can ride that train will find that AM radio is almost dead.  Give it 5 years and it is dead.

Proof of Trouble Brewing at KPRC Radio

I know that this mostly just interests me, but c’mon, it’s fun to watch a wingnut radio station going down the tubes, no?

AM radio KPRC (trying to rebrand as “the 9-5-0” after the Matthews ordeal) is now dealing with another controversy.  Chris Baker has disappeared again!

Back in the day, radio personalities could be shuffled from one market to another and no one would really ever put two and two together.  Today?  No more.  I was the first to track down Retarded Chris Baker when Michael Berry fired him and now (after many hits on my post about it) lots of the radio station listeners have found Baker in Minneapolis.

I am laughing my ASS OFF.

Just look at the uprising at KPRC’s Facebook page (in newest first order):

And these are the people who think they can change the country by voting once AND have the people they voted for listen to them.  When even you local AM radio station won’t listen to you, how powerful are you?     Since Chris Baker is not on the air in Houston, not so powerful.

To me it seems that AM radio listeners are just loud but not powerful, and AM radio is just loud but not powerful — except in as far as they have Republican politicians convinced of their nonexistent power and they can lie about the numbers behind their supposed support.

And just as a side note — core listeners don’t seem to care much for PagLIARulo — he gives them a headache.  Good thing I have a strong inner core — otherwise I wouldn’t be able to bring you the crazy!

Michael Berry’s Response

What’s that saying, when you’ve got nothing in an argument?  Oh, here it is.  Joe PagLIARulo:

Once they lose, once they’re against the wall, the only recourse they have is to attack on a personal level and you know what?  I’m too big for that.  I’m too smart for that and so are you.

Obviously Michael Berry isn’t 😉  I sent him an email, pointing out that he got a little mixed up on whether Medal of Honor recipients are recipients or winners.  This is how he responded:

Seriously?  Is ur life so sad?

Im startin to pity u

Really

And another email:

U poor nasty hag

Feed ur cats

Ur life is emptyand deep down u know it

Keep writin ur blog nobody reads

Poor sad pathetic thing

So lonely u must be

Meow, cat lady

U reek of cat urine

Pleade change the litter box

An a third email:

You are a fool

And you know it

You are obsessed with me

I just wish someone had asked you to prom

You are forever scarred

So sad

Please feed the cats

That’s our Michael Berry:  big, smart!