Michael Jackson: 70's soul prodigy, '80's it-boy and '90's pop-cultural freek was laid to rest today.
And so be it. Peace at last and all that...
(photo: Michael Jackson- may rise up in 3 days)
Continue reading "The king of pop and the queen of schlock" »
A young man dreams his dreams. And Tuesday Dori Monson, former King of Seattle Talk Radio (KIROFM m-f, 12-3p) announced that he''d he go to zero gravity on a Celebrity Space Flight, June 27th.
(photo: maximum dorkitude)
With oodles of the feigned emotions he's famous for, Dori admitted he felt all "quivery" about it but allowed that he'd man-up to the challenge because it's for charity (Fred Hutch) and that space flight had been on his lifetime goal list for 29 years!
From a source we got an old hard drive and Dori's and found this historic, early version of The Dori Monson Lifetime Goals List [with new goals and some eliminated because they've been achieved or are no longer important to him]
(photo: a young man & his dreams)
A guy who describes himself as a 42-year-old "home-officed" Seattleite whose family members are Arbitron personal meter wearers told Blatherwatch today that neither he nor his wife have heard KIRO news talk since April 1st, the day they left the AM dial.
Continue reading "PPM-er to blatherwatch "we have not listened to KIRO since April 1."" »
With Glenn Beck (KTTH m-f 6-9a) crying for the "future of this nation he loves", and an epidemic of tea parties where talk show hosts use the words of the Founders to issue secession statements (in the name of Patriotism) it's clear that America is about to break up into small city-states run by radio personalities. ~~ Dave Ross (KIROFM m-f, 9a-12p)
We've heard from listeners about the recent major shift in Seattle radio: the switch to FM of the hoary AM new stalker KIRO to AM and the format flip to sports.
Frankly, FM talk has never made it in Seattle.
It was a bold but risky move by Bonneville -- one they've taken in other markets. KIRO AM was their crown jewel in Seattle, and it'll take a year or so to know if the change was good.
A reader dared us to post about Dori Monson's "award" last week.
We'd got a press release for Newsmax magazine's Top 25 Local Radio Hosts or "little Limbaughs." It asked breathlessly: "So who’s the Hannity of Houston, the Savage of Seattle, or the Limbaugh of Los Angeles? Newsmax decided to find out."
(Photo: "So who's got a girl's name, now?")
KIROFM's Dave Ross (m-f,9-12) and Dori Monson (m-f,12-3) were both listed. There's a Top 25 list for national hosts too.
The award is less than meaningless; in part, it's a marketing tactic that ropes talk hosts in by feeding their famously tumescent egos.
NM is a fledgling magazine trying to get free air-time in radio markets. Besides the namedropping Top 25 lists to snare needy talk hosts into their marketing plans, they're saturating night times on right-wing stations like KVI with heavy-handed ads -- subscribe now and get your free, hand-crank emergency radio before the Obamageddon kicks in!
NewsMax.com, the web site is a grimy, far-right, oft-discredited, sensationalistic -- arguably the most-read (not counting Drudge) in the right-wing movement minicosm.
Newsmax, the print magazine strains to be mainstream. With writers like Dick Morris, Laura Ingraham, John Stossel, and Martin Buber. It's based in West Palm Beach (Rush's home) and is said to be an attempt to replace the faltering conservative National Review.
(We also ignored the list because, hell, we're busy! We 're up to here with our own meaningless, ego-enhancing crap. But then Dori had to start flapping his wings and strutting around the coop. And... we got dared. Sadly we fell once again to the temptation to wamp on Dori... an immature pastime which not only gets us off, but also lots of traffic).
(photo: Dave in summer)
Newsmax measured each host on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most conservative. Astoundingly, Dave got a five, Dori got a 6. That's just the first problem with this. (Dori, like Billo Reilly, claims to be neither right nor left.... just pissed off. Maybe he should be measured on the Scoville scale). That they would be just a point apart is laughable. Has the author John Mainelli actually listened to these guys?
Mainelli's resumé is a little speckled. He's been a program director for stations all over the country, and done some consulting, but most of his google hits are from when he was fired from the tabloid NY Post after he allegedly made up stuff about Howard Stern in 2006. There might be something there... you got to be pretty bad to be canned by The Post.
The magazine's casual relationship with factuality is shown in the error-studded, ungrammatical on-line list of Top 25 national radio hosts (presumably, the "Big Limbaughs") dated today.
Dori doesn't usually get awards -- he's got a couple of Best Dad In The World cups; a GutterHelmet Achiever certificate; and a "Soundie" he found on the street after a PSRBA banquet.
Dave Ross, who only acknowledged this honor when Dori brought it up when they were on-air together, gets real national recognition such as the 2001 and 2005 Edward R. Murrow Awards, and a Marconi nomination.
Unlike KVI's Kirby Wilbur (KVI m-f, 5-9a) neither Dori nor Dave appear in most common (and equally flawed) metric of national radio whoozhootitude: Talker's magazine Heavy Hundred. (Kirby is #72).
Newsmax media is the spawn of Christopher Ruddy, a nutter entrepreneur who's been funded by Richard Mellon Scaife and others over the years. He tried to cash in with the goofie right with his Vince-Foster-was-murdered plot.
Ruddy and his crew are known for pulling stuff out of their collective fundament -- Media Matters calls the magazine "a monthly publication with a history of publishing baseless conspiracy theories about Democrats."
Newsmax famously went balls-out with the rectally-acquired Obama madrassa story, and was thoroughly, humiliatingly debunked. In another fiasco, they accused Hillary Clinton of refusing to meet with Gold Star Mothers -- another ass-sourced story.
To oppose the Immigration Bill in 2007, they spread the apocryphal fright tale of a proposed "North American Union," that would knock out the borders between the US, Canada, and Mexico to create a giant nation where "NAU citizens no longer spend dollars or salute Old Glory." The dollar would become the "amero."
The list and judgment of who's at the "Top" in all the land was in the hands of John Mainelli, That it was based on anything more substantial (polling, ratings, expert interviews, etc) is never claimed.
This list is nothing more than gee-whiz vanity advertising of fodder of a dubious publication.
Dave Ross will pull the plug, throw the switch, slay a small four-legged animal and fo, rmally say goodbye to 710KIRO as we know it at 11:55a THURSDAY April 2. The 710 KHz location has been news gab for over 80 years.
(The ceremony was delayed one day in order to April Fool BlatherWatch:
were told it was to happen yesterday).
Sports talk 710AM ESPN will be launched in the hallowed location Monday, April 6.
Continue reading "Historic seattle radio day THURSDAY at KIRO " »
~~ She got the gig! Tina Nole left CBS Radio wednesday to start Air America Thursday where her duties
as yet announceable. "It feels like home here with all these progressives!" she says. The longtime Dave Ross (KIRO m-f, 9a-12p) producer left for NY in 2007 and produced, among other things, CBS's Super Tuesday and Pennsylvania primary coverage. Stay tuned for upcoming AAR developments. Read her blog here.
(photo: Tina Nole: unrecognizably New York-y)
~~ Rev. Dave Barry? Dave Ross will appear Saturday on The Fairly Spiritual Show, (KGNW, Saturdays, 10-11a) talking about how his Catholic faith influences his work.
(photo: 'Dave in winter' by Dave Ross)
He'll be with host Pastor Doug Bursch, a Pentacostal with a sense of humor who self-describes thus on his web page: "He has the humor of Billy Graham and the theology of Dave Barry. Or maybe it’s the other way around." We
(photo: Pastor Doug)
have a feeling Pastor Doug's spirituality is not as ambiguous as his show title leads one to believe. Advice to Dave Ross: don't sign anything!
It's gotta be Dori Monson, TBTL, and Dave Boze's wife.
And PD Rod Arquette, and CEO Bruce Reese,.
The Phase II Arbitrends (for Sept. Oct, Nov.) are out, and KIRO (AM & FM) made a huge leap to #1 in the market from tied for 5th in the summer book. A jump from 4.1 to an astounding 5.7.
And who's tied (with market biggie country KMPS) for # 2? Why, it's KTTH, the little station that apparently could. (Jeez, it was only Tuesday we were calling it a "prerecorded afterthought.")
Continue reading "KIRO, KTTH jump to no.1 and no 2 in the market" »
Seattle did pretty well last night in New York winning when they handed out the coveted Edward R. Murrow Awards, the Radio-Television News Directors Association's annual honoring of excellence in electronic journalism.
Dave Ross (KIRO m-f, 9a-12p) won for writing Tap Three Times, a song about Senator Larry Craig for his national CBS Radio commentary. Listen to it here. 
KIRO's The Big Story @6 (m-f, 6-7p), Tony Miner and Tim Haeck's excellent long-form newscast won one.
John Sharify, (who doesn't work at KOMO TV anymore) won for his writing as he did in 2007.
As much as it galls us to write it: KOMO-TV news won for Large Market Overall Excellence.
Change is good
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