blatherWatch

Friday oddems: honky whitesville; slime at the water's edge; neville chamberlain plays hardball; tiny, sick children; zucchini de ron; shrimp cocktails hired at KIRO; absolutely nothing about dori monson

~~ Unfortunately for KIRO fill-ins Frank Shiers and David Goldstein; these shrimp cocktails were hired during Passover to fill in for Ron & Don (m-f, 3-6p). "They're not kosher," said PD Rod Arquette, "but few in the R&D audience knew the difference." 

~~ "You don't know what you're talking about." We've been trashing MSNBC's Chris Matthews lately because he gets spittle on his jaw when he talks, and what he's usually talking about generally reveals him to be a supercilious ass. But Thursday, we gotta hand it to you, Chris: you done good. KRLA talk host Kevin James came on to discuss Bush's pointed attack on the Democrats in the Knesset today, where he accused Barack Obama of the "appeasement" of terrorists, comparing him obliquely to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, British Conservative appeaser of Hitler. James, who's a blabbermouthed fool his own self, kept referring to Chamberlain until Matthews could take it no more. "What did Neville Chamberlain do wrong in 1939?" he demanded. James motored on without answering the question. Then Matthews went after him like a school marm on meth until he got James to finally admit he didn't know what the hell Chamberlain actually did in the hideous history he was trying to hang on Obama. "He's as bad as the White House Press Secretary that doesn't even know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was," Matthews said later. Kevin James is an attorney, and the exchange was utterly satisfying. The incident, which can be viewed here, was added almost immediately to James' Wikipedia entry found here.   

Bernie ward to serve significant prison time

In a plea agreement, former KGO talk radio host Bernie Ward faces at least five years in prison on a single count of distributing child pornography.

Ward, 57, admitted to Judge Vaughn Walker as part of his plea agreement that he sent between 15 and 150 images of child pornography via e-mail.

The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a possible maximum of 20 years. Doron Weinberg, Ward's defense lawyer, said he expects Ward to spend at least four years and three months in prison even with credit for good behavior.

Ward was to go before a jury in Walker's court on June 9. Originally charged last year with two other counts of receiving and attempting to send child pornography in January 2005. Those charges are to be dropped in the plea bargain.

The defense told the judge that Ward's use of pornography occurred "in a few weeks in 2004 and 2005" and reflected "an error in judgment rather than sexual proclivity."

Walker will sentence Ward Aug. 28.

Ward is a former Catholic priest and teacher, lives in San Francisco, is married and has four children. He worked in radio for about 20 years and had a loyal following for his weeknightly political show and Godtalk, on Sunday mornings. Both shows were on KGO.

He originally claimed that he was looking at the illegal material researching a book on hypocrisy. The defense filed a motion asking the court to allow Ward to argue that his actions were protected by the First Amendment.

The defense team concluded that courts would not allow that argument. "He thought it was legal to do it as a journalist, but our conclusion was that the courts wouldn't accept that," Weinberg told reporters Thursday.

"Bernie is not a sexual predator," he said.

But the indictment, once unsealed with its damning transcripts of online chats, made Ward's original claim of book research on hypocritical Republicans really hard to swallow, and knocked the underpinnings from any free speech defense.

Radio editor speaks: "you're an entertainer. so entertain us."

After Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos puffery, All Access Editor Perry Michael Simon writes these cold splashing words to would-be radio rainmakers:

"...But before we all get a big head and start to think that we're all kingmakers and steering the ship of mankind, it's probably a good time to remind ourselves why we're here, and that is:

1. To sell products for advertisers
2. By being entertaining
3. And make a lot of money
4. For our employers
5. And that's it.

Okay, there's also:

6. If we influence people into agreeing with us in the bargain, hey, that's gravy.

And maybe there's:

7. Chicks dig the radio personalities. (No, that's only for Top 40 jocks, and that involves request-line pickups, and that could also involve legal entanglements, so maybe it's better that talk radio hosts don't go there).

KUOW kicks commercial radio ass in seattle winter arbitron ratings

In a huge lead the likes of which we've never seen, public radio's talker KUOW  smashed the commercial opposition in the Seattle market.

Dig it:

• KUOW   6.1
• KUBE     5.2
• KRWM    4.8
• KIRO      4.1
• KOMO     3.8
• KING-FM 3.1
• KPLU      3.0
• KTTH     2.6
• KVI        2.3
• KPTK      1.6

A six share in this market? Unheard of.

We've been critical of KUOW's programming, and we're working on PD Jeff Hansen to sit down and talk to us. We believe that KUOW, while doing a great job snagging the dominant radio demographic (45 years and older) is not doing much to attract younger listeners.

But that said, we think that NPR, and KUOW in particular has proven that smart, commercial-free programming sells in this and most markets.

TBTL: it lives!

Everyone wants to know: Is KIRO's show Too Beautiful to Live?

Seems the KIRO suits were high-fiving each other Monday: "We're the highest rated show on the station in the 18-34 demo," says Luke Burbank, the host of the new low-concept show (m-f, 7-10p).

This seems like a fine distinction, he says, "except that when we  took over the slot, it was at 0.00. And the whole idea behind TBTL was to get the youngsters."

Well, although they haven't yet seen their numbers separated out from the Phil Hendrie Show (the initial book lumps the shows together), it looks like they're doing just that.

The not-so-incredible shrinking seattle radio market

AM Talk radio made its chops on hard-edge, piss & moan conservative boilerplate. With the death of live and local programming there are signs that the next wave may be lighter in content and softer in volume.

Conservatism took a big hit after it became the establishment, and its practitioners -- the Bush administration, and the Republican majority blew it so utterly. (The R's are so freaked out they've nominated a gen-u-wine RINO).

~~ we're still feeling a little woozy, which is why we're blogging weird and wonky.

~~ Oops, Dep't. Kirby Wilbur (KVI m-f 5-9a) rolled out property tax initiative I-1030, on his show Wednesday, with the help of national right-wing hitman, Floyd Brown (presumably to provide a "celebrity" to the auspicious occasion) and nutty wing man, wingnut Wynn Cannon whom, we were told, wrote the masterpiece. Introducing grumpy, reactionary initiatives and referenda is traditionally done on Kirby's show. "Cut' em off at the purse strings." Kirby proclaimed. This dog will pass for sure, we thinks: When Horsesass.org's David Goldstein applied the math to his own house, he found his property bill "would be reduced by a stunning 99.4 percent!" He'd pay only $25.26 on "Arse Acres," his Seward Park manse. Goldy writes: "Perhaps that wasn’t exactly what Kirby intended, but then, perhaps he should have consulted a lawyer before writing, you know… a law."

The Takeaway, starts today on New York's WNYC with veteran NPR and NBC journalist John Hockenberry and co-host, Adaora Udoji, formerly of CNN.

The show, from Public Radio International, will strive to counter the staid feel and taped interviews of NPR’s venerable Morning Edition.

The New York Times wrote Sunday, "Public radio is drawing its largest audience ever, some 28 million listeners nationwide each week. But if it’s a golden era, you wouldn’t know it from the frenetic activity to remake the genre."

Activity, if you want to call it that, ain't so frenetic around here with local public stations, KUOW, and KPLU. The Takeaway will be heard in NY, Boston and Baltimore, and presumably will be available to all; but we doubt we'll be hearing it any time soon except by podcast or livestream -- despite the local stations run ME simultaneously in the the same market.

KUOW, with all their resources, cash reserves, and penny-pinching; enjoying 2nd or 3rd place in the market every book, doesn't seem much interested in investing in the future that the rest of public radio is clamoring for. 

Slog posted an internal Seattle Times memo Friday listing staffers taking the company's buyout offer.

The paper accepted "expressions of interest" from 19 people, who will get the money, take a hike, and their jobs will "simply vaporize" as The Times puts it so poetically. 

Not surprisingly, Florangela Davila, a reporter whose beat is radio -- another medium in deep shit -- was on the list opting for the sweet grass.

No fault of Florangela's, but frankly, The Times hasn't paid that much attention to the industry anyway. That's been left to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Bill Virgin, a busy business reporter who writes the Wednesday On Radio column, bookmarked by every local radio staffer in town who can read. Virgin does due diligence with industry press releases, and covers the hard news stories with the kind of access to management BlatherWatch only dreams of. He leaves the sturm, drang, and nasty bits to us, for which we've always been grateful.

(photos Bill Virgin, left; Florangela Davila, right)

Dang it, the one thing wrong with KPTK's instantly signing up new Nova M talent, Randi Rhodes, is that now Seattle listeners won't get to get a listen to whomever replaces her.

Not even if it's Seattle homeboy Ron Reagan!

That hadn't occurred to us until we heard Thursday that he'll fill-in/try out next week in Randi's old spot in which Air America has created a new show called American Afternoon, which airs on the network's webstream, satellite feed, and a few terrestrial stations. It's live at 12-3p, Pacific time, weekdays .

If Ron makes it, (the chances of which we'll discuss farther down) he'd be not heard in his hometown where some 2-3.5% of the listening audience could be counted upon to listen to him. Those numbers are from his old KIRO time slot and weren't, actually, too bad in this market especially for the peculiar 1-hour radio spiderhole he used to have.

Others reportedly in the chute for Air America trial flights are comedian/TV personality Roseanne Barr (with Johnny Argent), and The View co-host Joy Behar. (We heart Roseanne, btw, who told one of the teevee night talkers recently: "I went and had vaginal rejuvenation surgery. No, I did! And now I have a va-junior. And I’m not afraid to use it.”)

Boring oddems with some sick sexual stuff and a chocolate cake thrown in to make sure you'll read past the bump..

~~ we're still feeling a little woozy, which is why we're blogging weird and wonky.

~~ Oops, Dep't. Kirby Wilbur (KVI m-f 5-9a) rolled out property tax initiative I-1030, on his show Wednesday, with the help of national right-wing hitman, Floyd Brown (presumably to provide a "celebrity" to the auspicious occasion) and nutty wing man, wingnut Wynn Cannon whom, we were told, wrote the masterpiece. Introducing grumpy, reactionary initiatives and referenda is traditionally done on Kirby's show. "Cut' em off at the purse strings." Kirby proclaimed. This dog will pass for sure, we thinks: When Horsesass.org's David Goldstein applied the math to his own house, he found his property bill "would be reduced by a stunning 99.4 percent!" He'd pay only $25.26 on "Arse Acres," his Seward Park manse. Goldy writes: "Perhaps that wasn’t exactly what Kirby intended, but then, perhaps he should have consulted a lawyer before writing, you know… a law."

When will KUOW get on the bus?

The Takeaway, starts today on New York's WNYC with veteran NPR and NBC journalist John Hockenberry and co-host, Adaora Udoji, formerly of CNN.

The show, from Public Radio International, will strive to counter the staid feel and taped interviews of NPR’s venerable Morning Edition.

The New York Times wrote Sunday, "Public radio is drawing its largest audience ever, some 28 million listeners nationwide each week. But if it’s a golden era, you wouldn’t know it from the frenetic activity to remake the genre."

Activity, if you want to call it that, ain't so frenetic around here with local public stations, KUOW, and KPLU. The Takeaway will be heard in NY, Boston and Baltimore, and presumably will be available to all; but we doubt we'll be hearing it any time soon except by podcast or livestream -- despite the local stations run ME simultaneously in the the same market.

KUOW, with all their resources, cash reserves, and penny-pinching; enjoying 2nd or 3rd place in the market every book, doesn't seem much interested in investing in the future that the rest of public radio is clamoring for. 

Seattle times radio reporting: look for less of the same

Slog posted an internal Seattle Times memo Friday listing staffers taking the company's buyout offer.

The paper accepted "expressions of interest" from 19 people, who will get the money, take a hike, and their jobs will "simply vaporize" as The Times puts it so poetically. 

Not surprisingly, Florangela Davila, a reporter whose beat is radio -- another medium in deep shit -- was on the list opting for the sweet grass.

No fault of Florangela's, but frankly, The Times hasn't paid that much attention to the industry anyway. That's been left to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Bill Virgin, a busy business reporter who writes the Wednesday On Radio column, bookmarked by every local radio staffer in town who can read. Virgin does due diligence with industry press releases, and covers the hard news stories with the kind of access to management BlatherWatch only dreams of. He leaves the sturm, drang, and nasty bits to us, for which we've always been grateful.

(photos Bill Virgin, left; Florangela Davila, right)

Ron reagan: back on the air!

Dang it, the one thing wrong with KPTK's instantly signing up new Nova M talent, Randi Rhodes, is that now Seattle listeners won't get to get a listen to whomever replaces her.

Not even if it's Seattle homeboy Ron Reagan!

That hadn't occurred to us until we heard Thursday that he'll fill-in/try out next week in Randi's old spot in which Air America has created a new show called American Afternoon, which airs on the network's webstream, satellite feed, and a few terrestrial stations. It's live at 12-3p, Pacific time, weekdays .

If Ron makes it, (the chances of which we'll discuss farther down) he'd be not heard in his hometown where some 2-3.5% of the listening audience could be counted upon to listen to him. Those numbers are from his old KIRO time slot and weren't, actually, too bad in this market especially for the peculiar 1-hour radio spiderhole he used to have.

Others reportedly in the chute for Air America trial flights are comedian/TV personality Roseanne Barr (with Johnny Argent), and The View co-host Joy Behar. (We heart Roseanne, btw, who told one of the teevee night talkers recently: "I went and had vaginal rejuvenation surgery. No, I did! And now I have a va-junior. And I’m not afraid to use it.”)