BlatherWatch

conservative says: get out of iraq...now!

He's a conservative, a militarist, and a renowned national security think-tanker and last week he wrote in the Seattle Weekly "Get out of Iraq--now.

Philip Gold has been downright prescient about the war; he predicted it, called it for the dangerous adventurism that it is, affixed blame on the Bushite neocons and has been ostracized for it his former peers.

We went into Iraq to teach the world a lesson. It didn't work. It won't. Perhaps now we should let the people of Iraq do the teaching, and say to them:

"We freed you from a hideous tyrant. We helped you to rebuild your economy, your society, your security forces. We gave you three years to think about what you really want. Now we're leaving. Let's see what you do with your freedom."

In the summer leading up to 9-11, he predicted an imminent terrorist strike. When you read his remarkable Washington Law & Politics piece Jihadistan, published July 2001, you'll need to read more from Philip Gold.

seattle spring arbitron ratings: KVI up, KIRO, KPTK and KTTH in the pooper

We predicted it--so did everyone else.  It seems every quarter when the book comes out, the once-mighty KIRO-AM, sinks some more.

Last fall, they were at 5.0 share; in Winter, a 4.2; and today the Spring book gave them a new low,a 2.6. Once # 3 overall in the city, today they're tied with a Christian station for 7th place.

These are the age 12+ ratings made public here At Radio & Records. The 25-54 demo numbers--most important to advertisers--will probably be worse.

We've been chronicling this sad decline for as long as we've been blathering and so far, the mighty but apparently cumbersome Entercom machine has not moved to mitigate the programing screw-ups that have exacerbated the problems brought down on the station by the loss of the Mariners last year.

Recently, a major-market program director shook his head at Brian Maloney of Radio Equalizer and pointed out how hard it is to bring a station back from a drop this steep. "The station's next management team with have the challenge of a lifetime," Maloney writes.

We reported last week that VP/Market Manager for all of the local stations, Kevin McCarthy was fired and quickly replaced by his counterpart from Denver, Jerry McKenna. This is supposed to herald some big changes down at Eastlake, but we haven't seen them yet.

Li'l Entercom sister, KTTH was the benefactor last year of a coup by an earlier Entercom management that stole Rush Limbaugh from rival, KVI. But the same Entercom geniuses, Tom Clendening and Dave Pridemore who blew KIRO into oblivion also made the decision to ride on that success and neglect the rest of the programing.

It was a sin of omission that's proven devastating.

They only have one local host in a decent time slot and and except for his retrofitted hairline, he's sadly deficient. KTTH stumbled further into the abyss from a 3.0 to a 2.6.

KVI, with its radio community-building, politicking, local, drivetime hosts, has pulled off a comeback even without Big Pants.

Another resister to local programing is Air America's KPTK, whose lackluster performance is disappointing the Seattle liberal community, BlatherWatch and, we hope, the Infinity suits in New York.

They went from a drab 1.5 to a lessluster 1.4. Infinity management seems timid about making the necessary local hires that might build a solid community base. and hence some real ratings. They only have to look at KTTH's problems and KVI's success to get a proverbial clue.

Every minute KIRO dangles slowly, slowly in the wind, is a day wasted in the competitive run for their listeners, lost stolen or strayed.

This isn't about Air America; nor is it about the feasibility of progressive talk. It's about a large broadcasting company and its programing abilities and priorities.

Portland's KPOJ, a Clear Channel station who went liberal at about the same time as KPTK, is now no.5 overall in town; and went from a 3.3 in Winter to a 4.5 today.

That's because management spent some money, took some risk. They brought the brilliant author and inspired national talker Thom Hartmann to town and installed him in the 9 to noon.

BlatherWatch has grave doubts about the ability of Infinity and their Seattle management to run a newstalk station. So far, all that's been remarkable are the opportunities missed.

It's time they grew a set and coughed up a little.

air america "scandal" is all-air, america

This so-called Air America "scandal" is as thin as sin's little sister, and even uglier. Expect this to go the way of like "Jeff Gannon" and MSM coverage of Rush Limbaugh's public flatulance.

Here's the text of Air America's press release.

If the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club are true, it is absolutely disgraceful.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal and the HBO Documentary, Left of the Dial‚ the company that the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club officials gave money to, Progress Media, has been defunct since May 2004.  That company was run at the time by Evan Cohen who has not had any involvement in Air America Radio since May 2004.

The current owners of Air America Radio have no obligation to Progress Media‚s business activities.  We are very disturbed that Air America Radio's good name could be associated with a reduction in services for young people, which is why we agreed months ago to fully compensate the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club as a result of this transaction.

We at Air America Radio strongly believe in the mission of Boys and Girls Clubs to provide a safe and nurturing place for young people to learn and grow. As a result, we recently allowed the same club, Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, to use our name in a fundraising effort for a summer camp for children in their community.

The funding for Camp Air America was raised and collected entirely by the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, and Air America promoted the camp on air and urged support for it. A link on our web site sent those interested in contributing to the camp to the Gloria Wise web site. Regrettably, the camp did not survive the closure of the Gloria Wise organization. We have offered any individuals who contributed to the camp as a result of Air America's promotion the option of a refund paid for by Air America Radio and the Club offered the alternative option of having their donation redirected to Kip's Bay Boys and Girls Club.

air america scandal: is it real or more republican mudhoney?

A scandal that could change the subject from Karl Rove, the dismality of the Iraqi War and Bush's horrible poll numbers??!!

They were thrillin'  Wedneday when Righties thought they had one on Air America Radio. Too bad for them, it's a bust...and it's all on film.

Michelle Malkin, the sharp-elbowed neobabe came to the John Carlson Show (KVI m-f,306p) Wednesday to salivate over an alleged scandal that touches Air America negatively only if an elongated spin is applied. And, of course, it is.

Malkin is a columnist and best-selling author of conservative books who's cast in the stainless steel image of the severe nuns who raised her.

(In the interest of full disclosure, we must admit that the attractive Ms. Malkin, an erstwhile columnist on the Seattle Times, once kissed us. Although it was an innocent and daughterly kiss, we've never gotten it out of our mind nor have we mustered for her the contempt we have for her rival neocon smashmouth, Ann Coulter, who once rejected our innocent advances and lunged hissing like a succubus at our genital area, gore dripping from her fangs.)

Malkin was there to roll around gleefully in the mudhoney with the flirty Carlson (we were jealous, she must have kissed him at some point, as well--we tell you, it's a life-changing experience) about a story dug up by Radio Equalizer, Brian Maloney, radio blogger and former conservative KVI and KIRO talk host.

It's about a half million dollars in government grant money for a Bronx Girls and Boy's Club alleged to have been invested in AAR by Charles Rosen, the club's leader. He was talked into the investment (or loan) by founding AAR Chairman and main investor Evan Cohen who was also serving as the club's development director.

Why was Malkin there instead of Maloney? Because there's no love lost between Carlson and Maloney after Maloney replaced Carlson who then replaced Maloney at KVI as drivetime talk host back in the '90's.

If you saw the excellent HBO documentary, Left of the Dial, you know Cohen. He was depicted as a fraud; bouncing checks not only to their Chicago and LA affiliates but also to employees like Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, and Randi Rhodes. He lied to everyone in sight and eventually signed away the company in the middle of the night and disappeared--all in front HBO cameras.

(Cohen was a shady, dissembling con-man before pulling his dick out of Air America, That's well-known--hell, it's all on film. He must have been pretty desperate to raise the money he'd told everyone he already had. That he screwed over a kid's charity in the process is not surprising.)

Air America was saved by a group of investors headed up by Seattle's Rob Glaser of RealNetworks who serves as chairman of the board. Sen. Maria Cantwell introduced Al Franken to Glaser, her old boss and mentor. Franken told Seattle Weekly's Geov Parrish that he "lured" him into helping the foundering organization. That was a score that was good for America.

By any measure, AAR is a clean, healthy organization run and financed by successful entrepreneurs who believe what they're doing is the Lord's Work.   

The right-wing is jumping on this because the word scandal and Air America can be put in the same paragraph. They've been predicting doom for the feisty little startup network since before it went on-air 18 months ago.

Despite its bumpy start, AAR continues to grow--not fast enough for most of us, but way too fast for the righties. Blather Watch has been covering the good news and the bad since our own humble beginning.

Click here for our pithsome, doggedly exciting: Air America/THE NUMBERS: one healthy baby...

Or here for our salient, Air America/THE POLITICS: one healthy baby...

Republicans have control of a potent media tool in talk radio, and they won't cede one inch of it to the left without fighting it in the way they do best--with tooth and claw.

public airwaves: we gotta get us some...

KVI talker John Carlson (m-f, 3-6p) will be an adviser to Safeco CEO Mike McGavick's senatorial exploratory committee, so we learned last week

The news was greeted with hoots by those who remember Carlson's quixotic run at Gov.Gary Locke in 2000. Carlson gained only 40% of the vote, not even coming up to the Christian extremist Ellen Craswell's laughable 1996 vote total.

You wouldn't think Carlson would be of much use to the squeaky-voiced  McGavick. Brenda over at Washington State Political Report even suggests McGavick might as well bring in perennial candidate Mike the Mover for some advice.

But we doubt Carlson was brought in for advice on how to run a gubernatorial campaign as much as to bring his considerable political capital to the candidacy of a business Republican who wants the blessings of the state's hard right, with its goofy fundamentalist grassroots.

Though he didn't win in 2000, Carlson's shown though the Undo Gregoire unrest and anti-roads repair initiative campaign that he can influence the electorate handily...and as important, he's become the face of the new faux populism discovered by the Republicans, who took it up after they'd failed for years to win any statewide elections.

As a symbol, Carlson is taking the place of Tim Eyman the initative who's fading into irrelevance and horsesassedness.

This, thanks to being allowed by his corporate bosses at Fisher Broadcasting and by foggy public disclosure law to not only advocate on the radio(which is his blessed First Amendment right) but to directly partipate in the campaigning.

This was an unholy trinity of conservative talk radio, right-wing bloggers, and GOP professionals.

We were thinking today of how much easier it is to succeed as a radio blabberjockey than it is to succeed as a public servant.

Recently we discussed the horrifying idea that Sean Hannity might run for president. It was mostly tongue in cheek, but we concluded that Hannity is such a provable liar, he couldn't possibly be elected.

That's the problem for so-called "advocacy journalists" should they try to go into elected politics--and few have actually done it. It's like how hard it is for a US Senator to run successfully for president because of the paper trail and public record of the inevitable sausage-making that must be done to be effective for your constituency in a legislative body.

Politicians equivocate and avoid hard answers because their job depends on compromise. The job of a talk host, on the other hand is, as radio consultant Walt Sabo has said, "to get you riled up and establish absolutes, because only an absolute point of view produces phone calls, which are really hard to generate."

That's why callers are always telling these egotistical blabberjockeys they should run for something-- because they sound so clear and strong.

But that's because the opinions spouted so bravely, they'll never have to account for in any real way. About the only thing they can be fired for is being boring. We always complain about boring politicians but what if but what if Ron Sims could run up his favorables by jumping out of an airplane like Dori Monson?

John Carlson is one of the few talkers to ever run for a major office. There were many reasons he lost, but some of it was his years as a broadcaster advocating for the hard conservative side on many, many issues.

Try as he might, Carlson couldn't keep a moderate face in his campaign because of this record. On Sunday nights for years, Carlson debated southpaw historian Walt Crowley in a point counter point setting on KIRO TV. In these popular weekly dust-ups, Carlson voiced opinions on creationism, apartheid, nerf balls--he was against them--as he was condoms, rail transit, low cost housing and  publically-funded speying and neutering, (though he was for castration of rapists). He couldn't avoid having to answer for all of that.

But why should he--or a Sean Hannity--even want to run for office? With their unfettered loudspeakers and publicity departments, the likes of which no politician could afford, they have far more clout than most politicos and almost never have to account for shooting their mouths off.

What an easier, softer way to amass power--and they've done it on our public airwaves.  Public airwaves: we gotta get us some......

mike siegel: au revoir but not goodbye

Mike Siegel (KTTH 6-9a) is so predictably craven, we almost feel guilty about exposing him once again--but we can't help ourselves. It's a new low--one at least as hypocritical as KIRO Lexus liberal Mike Webb's union busting.

Like all the right-wing noisemakers, Siegel has been shitting in the chapeaux of the French, those decadent, bath-hating, Jerry Lewis-loving, frog-eating, arrogant, self-serving...Europeans. The Bush Administration and the GOP, with the help of such as Siegel and Bill O'Reilly have tried to create an  "other" out of the French, because of their notable lack of enthusiasm about the Iraq War..(As we all know, the French's "otherness" is self-imposed and a matter of intense national pride).

Guess where, mes petits choux, Siegel is finishing up his vacances as we speak? That's right...En France!

Like his old friend Bill O'Reilly, Siegel has repeatedly called for a boycott of France.

(O'Reilly claims to have cost France billions of dollars because he called for a boycott of its goods and serviceson his radio and TV shows. This has been exposed by MediaMatters.org and New York Daily News columnist, Jack Matthews as a lie. The fatuous confabulator not only fabricated statistics; he even quoted the Paris Business Review which turned out to be a made-up publication.)

Earlier this month, Siegel praised a Danish pizza parlor owner who refused to serve German and French customers because of what he calls their anti-US policies. Siegel encouraged listeners to write to the guy and give him support.

On his website in 2003, Siegel pontificated in an essay called: The Arrogance of Countries That Stood By And Watched:

"It should not even have been an expectation of those who sat on the sidelines or even tried to block the efforts of the coalition to reap any rewards...I for one am thoroughly supportive of their being denied benefits because they simply do not deserve them."

That was then.

The now is: He's touring France, sipping Bordeaux and giving his good ol' US greenbacks to those socialistic, America-hating, cheese-eating, yellow-bellied Pétains--the citizenry of one of what Siegel has so indignantly denounced as the, "nations of expediency and disregard for consequences of their actions." (sic)

Mike Siegel ought to know expediency when he sees it.

We didn't need Entercom leakers to learn about Mike's big vacation, we heard it on his very own show Monday morning; subbed by KTTH producer Dan Boze, and Medved Show's tight-sphinctered bouncer, Dave Sytman.

When Siegel's name comes up around right-wing radio people, there's always a lot of eye-rolling--they know how situational his conservatism is.

Monday morning, the eye-rolling was deafening. Sytman's an ideologue, an enforcer by trade, a radio gatekeeper for Michael Medved--that's why they call him "Darth" Sytman. He's humorless, so when he jokes around, there's usually an agenda. He led the laughs at Siegel's expense with the listeners, while Boze just sounded uncomfortable.

Who knows what Sytman's agenda was for spreading the news--maybe Siegel's impurity bothers him or maybe he wants his job--Siegel's ratings are terrible. KTTH has suffered by having him as the only local host on the station. They have Limbaugh, but KVI drivetime jocks, Carson & Wilbur have smoked Siegel and the churlish bombast, Michael Savage through the elections, the intense post-gubernatorial mess and now the anti-roads repair initiative they cooked up.

Entercom, apparently distracted by the problems with the faltering mothership, KIRO has ignored KTTH like a red-headed step sister.  Some radio insiders say KTTH is a life-support system for Rush Limbaugh; others say Rush Limbaugh's a life support system for KTTH. They're both right.

Back when Seattle talk radio turned conservative, Siegel made an abrupt right turn from being a lefty populist who fought corporate malfeasance and corrupt government to become one of the first smashmouth reactionary talkjocks in the country.

Like O' Reilly, he says he's a pragmatist, not a conservative. But his 15-year record on conservative radio belies that since his "pragmatism" is rarely even moderate-which is where real pragmatism lives.

Mike Siegel's had a long and checkered career; but always manages to stay in Seattle, on the air and surviving every pickle barrel he can't help but dive into.

ken schram is the antichrist, carlson, wilbur wed

Bet your ass KVI programmers and marketing honchos were drooling Thursday as KOMO TV's  Ken Schram took the wheel for the vacationing John Carlson (m-f, 3-6p).

He led by announcing that Carlson and Kirby Wilson had gone to Vancouver BC to marry. Even though it's legal up there, the conservative audience was not amused.

(The afternoon with Schram was hot-talking, confrontal nudity. It was like going to Lutheran choir practice and having Mad Maxx show up as Choir Director).

It was great radio and even the choir loved it.

Aside from that BlatherWatch mostly agrees with Schram's politics, we'd have loved the show even if the philosophical tables had been turned. There was tension.passion, plenty of surprises, real give and take--very different than the standard fare of most talk shows stuck in the rut of the ol' day-to-day.

(We listen to talk radio a lot--we get angry, for sure, but even more, we get bored.)

Schram's a veteran TV guy whose weekdaily diatribes on the KOMOTV evening news sometimes infuriates liberals, sometimes warms our hearts, but they're always are true...to Ken Schram.

(He's what BlatherWatch calls a "fuck-you liberal." Top-rated KIRO overnight guy, Lou Pate would be his counterpart, a "fuck-you conservative." They're libertarian, no-party-line, one-issue-at-a-time, call-'em-as-they see-'em, and if you don't like it--fuck-you very much and have a nice day).

He's good on the liberal big picture issues: marriage choice, abortion, the war, I-912 and G.W. Bush, but gets downright cantankerous--mean even-- on a host of smaller issues, offending everybody in sight at least once a week.

The audience for the Carlson Show doesn't get its fur petted the wrong way very often. The popular Carlson is a nice Seattle boy, who skillfully manufactures and directs the outrage without scaring the horses.

Schram, on the other hand, was a rhinoceros in a room full of waffles, as the saying goes, challenging callers to shoot their best shot, pummeling them with heresy, always quick to laugh in their faces. KVI listeners heard things they never hear from a talk host, like, "I support marriage for gays and lesbians 100%."

We're telling you, they loved him.

Don't get us wrong, Carlson runs a good and successful talk show; and to his credit, he frequently has guests with opposing views. They sometimes get ganged-up on by Carlson and his conservative callers, but they're there and they're heard.

But while KVI listeners are accustomed to liberal guests, they're not used to a liberal host. Hosts have all the technological advantage in radio debate--call screening, the mute button, the flush lever, and the control of time.

Schram pressed these advantages like any talk host would, taking on all comers like one of those twirling, kicking ninjas fighting 16 brutes with 23 weapons.

Ken Schram is a likable, regular guy, (at least he plays one on TV); he smiles good-naturedly as he pulls your face off.

We got lots of mail today about the show. We like to think it was good for the Carlson audience--liberal medicine for them to be force fed by a harsh taskmaster...but they had a terrific time because it was terrific radio.

Schram would be tremendously successful in radio--he definitely has the looks for it--but those radio execs are never gonna get him--he's already got the best broadcast job in town.

BREAKING NEWS: push equals shove at kiro

The next thud you hear will be the other Adida finally hitting the floor at KIRO radio. Giant Entercom made the first move Thursday to start fixing this very sick radio station.

VP/Market Manager for all of the local stations, Kevin McCarthy was fired and quickly replaced by his counterpart from Denver, Jerry McKenna. McCarthy only lasted a year after being brought to Seattle from Clear Channel in San Diego.

Our guy at Eastlake says, "This turns the whole building upside down. Big changes [are] sure to quickly follow."

BlatherWatch has been reporting KIRO decline since March. For months now, we've been greeted with frank denials and sneers from Entercom management and employees with axes to grind.

But we were also overwhelmed with information from staffers worried about their jobs and sick about programming so clearly blunderful.

The blame went to PD Tom Clendening and General Manager Dave Pridemore. Besides the terrible programming decisions, there was some wicked Fisher Broadcasting stategery as well.

Then came the Winter Book and new ratings lows. 

So today the pogrom starts...our sources say Clendening is toast, and Dave Pridemore will probably go back to sales pretty fast.

He says to watch how fast the bad KIRO programming changes are undone.

Can all the king's horses, men, etc. put this radio station back together again? Can they repair the morning news show--the vital ratings mainstay--that is down by about half in recent years? Will Dave Ross go back to mornings? Will Allan Prell get into daycare? Can Dori Monson, who helped engineer this bum line-up, trade places with the overnight guy, Lou Pate--the highest-rated KIRO talkjock?  Will Erin Hart go to KPTK? Will Tony Ventrella run for Congress or have to be pushed? Could Frank Shiers please shut up? Will Mike Webb go back to DJ-ing Bar Mitzvahs? Can we have Val Stouffer back?

Our source says reviving the weakened, ignored sister station KTTH may actually be the easier than saving KIRO and asks: why doesn't it have a manager of its own?

We don't envy the next crop of managers at KIRO. We'll be watching and listening and you, dear readers, will be the first to know.
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What do you know about what's going on inside KIRO, KTTH, or KVI?  Drop us a line at [email protected]. Discretion assured.   

thursday oddems: another dori monsoon, dave ross in velvet, satan rocks, jesus walks, maté, and the witch of endor

MIDLIFE CRISIS? That darned Dori Monson (KIRO m-f, 12-3p). Was it only last month he jumped out of an airplane? This week he rode Miss Burien around Lk. Washington at 130 mph. Sadly, we don't mean "rode" in the Biblical sense--Miss Burien is a hydroplane.* It's all part of Monson's Summer Adventure Series to perk up his drooping ratings and get his old listeners back. Maybe it'll work, but both events were pretty lame by our lights. On the jump, the mic didn't work, so it was Tony Ventrella doing the color commentary while Dori's immortal words as he plunged were lost, alas, in the wild, blue yonder. On the thunderboat ride, you could make out that Dori was indeed blabbing away, but the engine roar (which was like white noise turned up to 12) made him sound like a very nervous man getting a haircut with a chainsaw. So again, Ventrella did color until Dori was finally audible and able to give us the kind of concise yet poetic critique he's known for: "Absolutely incredible!" were his first words. Here's a thrilling pic that matches the action. The event was more exciting than say, a Mariner's game, but we doubt if Big Eddie Schultz (KPTK m-f, 12-3p) or Sean Hannity (KVI m-f.12-3p) have much to worry about.
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DEP'T OF CORRECTIONS  Our Sunday school teacher used to say, "You may not know the Bible, but it knows you."  And we've striven to keep it that way. We stated adamantly last week in our alarming, yet lite-hearted post, Harry Potter and the GOP: The Company They Keep.2 that we couldn't find the word "witch" in the Bible. Actually...we just pulled that out of our ass and hadn't looked it up. But, hoo-boy-- many did. We liked Jeff Grubb's genteel correction--at least he didn't tell us we were going to burn in hellfire.

While I agree that it is amusing to see the economic conservatives grit their teeth while they stand next to the social conservatives, I should
point out that there are witches in the Bible, depending on which Bible you're reading. The hoary old King James gave us the classic "Suffer not a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18), though my later Oxford Annotated changed that (and other witchy references) to "female sorcerers and mediums." The Dead Sea Scrolls blipped over that section. Other witch-references show up in 2 Chronicles 33:6 and Deuteronomy 18:10 (Dead Sea Scrolls goes with "sorcerers" in the latter which is different from witches but doesn't get poor Harry out of the doghouse). But of course, we have  1Samuel 28, which goes into the story of the Witch of Endor. Yeah, Endor. Apparently she was an Ewok, and Lucas should be listening for the heavy tread of the deeply religious coming after him.

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GOTHIC ABSOLUTION  We don't usually post about music stations but we were alerted that the Prince of Darkness himself spins the death metal 10 times a week over at Radio Satan 666. Pretty awesome DJ for a little ol' webcast station, if you think about it. This tease for his show, His Satanic Majesty Presents strangely compelled us:  "Therapy for losers. This ain't a love show. This installment of HSMP is guaranteed to make you feel like more of a loser than you already are. So keep a box of Kleenex within reach, and prepare to weep. Fire arms must be stored under lock and key. Do not put a bullet in your head regardless how much of a loser you finally realize you are. One teenage French sex midget was sacrificed during the making of this show. For equal time, check out rival Radio Jesus 777 which Christians put up to counter Radio Satan. Unfortunately, and rather hilariously, the Satanists have taken over the chat room. 
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NO GIRLY MAN HE Dave Ross's (KIRO m-f, 3-6p) Summer Adventure Series will include playing a disappointed Reginald Bunthorne rejected by the lovely Patience (Cristina Villareale) in the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society's current production, running through July 30th at Seattle Center. Here's a picture of Dave looking uncharacteristically perturbed and wearing green velvet panteloons which, we're told is characteristic. Call 206.341.9612 for tickets. Click here, mention blatherWatch and get the member discount.
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HERE'S WHAT PAYS THE BILLS  Read Michael Hood's incisive, circumspect Ditch the Latté, Try Maté in the July ish of Seattle Magazine, now on newsstands. It's a story of drugs, blogs, arrogance and underwear written in the snotty, elitest tone and sense of entitlement BlatherWatchers know only too well.
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KPTK-AM (1090) has added some pre-recorded progressive programming to its weekend schedule,  Democracy Now with Amy Goodman's is heard at 7-8a Saturday and Sunday. Funny, right-on LA slick chick Stephanie Miller, 8-11a Saturday; Portland and the universe's Thom Hartmann from 11 a-2p Sunday; Jerry Springer, Sunday 2-4 p. This is good, but not as good as the local weekend programming we've been promised. Wassup Jim Trapp? 
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UNCHARACTERISTIC TASTE & RESTRAINT was what blatherWatch showed this week by ignoring the biggest story to come out of our region since Mary Kay LeTourneau's wedding registry at Bon-Macy's was made public. True, we'd have had to contort a bit (as we're doing right now) to make it about talk radio, but we've twisted stuff to make it fit the format many times before. What are we talking about? The spectacular, though tragic, Enumclaw bestiality case where a viscious Arabian stallion sexually abused his owner, causing the owner's  death. Though it was an Arab horse, terrorism has reportedly been ruled out. Don't expect our lofty standards to be upheld in the next local bestiality story if either party is: 1) a Republican official 2) a radio talent or producer (board ops: rock on!) 3) Stefan Shuckransky. The only local news talkers (that we know of ) who talked about this on-air were those arbiters of public grace, Bryan Suits (KVI m-f 6-9p) and Dori Monson-- both of whom have now gone on the record against bestiality.
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*Hydroplanes are very fast, very noisy motorboats that go round and round all day long on Seattle's Lk. Washington each year on a certain summer Sunday for some reason which we can't recall. Back in the '50's, before we had anything else to do, we thought watching them going round and round was actually interesting. The local TV channels all carried the race, and we were glued to the tube hoping one would flip over and make it really interesting. Those who went down to the Lake to watch usually just sat on a blanket and got drunk because they couldn't see anything anyway. Those who had boats tied to the logboom just sat on their boats and got drunk because they couldn't see anything either. Many Seattleites who now say they miss those days actually have no recollection of them.
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Got any inside radio poop to scoop? Discretion assured. Send us an email at [email protected].

pacific northwest portal--now better than ever

Pacific Northwest Portal, the one-stop for progressive political news, weather and sports for Washington, Oregon and Idaho has today launched the spanking new and improved Version 3.0.

It's the brainchild of tireless activist Andrew Villeneuve, Exec. Director of the Northwest Progressive Institute and Tim Eyman's worst nightmare since Andrew was 14 years old.

Listening to reader input Villeneuve and his Gang Who Never Sleeps have made the portal sleeker, faster, easier to navigate and more reliable.

It features regional and national political news wires, and 156 progressive blogs. They've syndicated seven new blogs--BlatherWatch is proud to be one of them. Congratulations to the others who  include Progressive Majority Washington, CoolAqua, Blue Washington; The American Street, Economist's View, and Radical Noesis.

The Portal is where BlatherWatch eats its breakfast every morning--you must go there at once.