BlatherWatch

Sharks in the water at fisher corporate

A major Fisher Communications (KOMO TV & radio, Star 101, KVI) shareholder, FrontFour Capital, a hedge fund, has told the company it plans to nominate four new board members at the upcoming shareholders' meeting. 

According to Radio Ink, the investor, wrote in a letter to Fisher that it had

"... serious concerns with the continued underperformance of the company under this board and management team" and that it has "lost all confidence in the ability of management to take the necessary steps to enhance value at Fisher and in the board's ability to hold management accountable or its poor performance."

FrontFour was pissed at Fisher's decision in December to reject a buyout bid from Huntingdon Real Estate Investment Trust. They say they believe "the best way to maximize shareholder value is to begin a review on the way to selling the company to the highest bidder." The letter also accuses the Fisher board of letting opportunities to maximize shareholder value "slip by without proper consideration."

The plot sickens to note that FrontFour Managing Member David Lorber is not only a member of the Fisher board, and also a member of the Huntingdon board of trustees; Huntingdon President/CEO Zachary George is a co-founder and managing member of FrontFour. Lorber recused himself from deliberations on the buyout.

Fisher's response:

"Fisher Communications has received a letter from FrontFour Capital, a hedge fund whose managing member, David A. Lorber, currently serves on Fisher's board, expressing its intention to nominate four individuals to Fisher's board of directors at the 2011 annual meeting of shareholders. While Fisher strongly disagrees with the assertions contained in the FrontFour letter, Fisher values input from all its shareholders, and the board will evaluate the nominees and make a recommendation in the best interests of Fisher's shareholders. Fisher's board and management team remain committed to enhancing shareholder value."

As bad as Fisher is, at least it's still local company. If you thought they were tone deaf, hard-assed, and unresponsive, just wait until this bunch gets hold of these properties...

(thanks to Billy Bob)

Old Seattle Radio Saturday: jeff boeing, robin mitchell, miss viva la tan

Kolorful KOL, Summer, 1968: Jeff Boeing (left) - real name Dick Haase - borrowed his radio name from a Seattle airplane manufacturer. Robin Mitchell (right) whose real name was Robin Mitchell. The blonde is Miss Viva La Tan. Can't help but wonder: where is Mr. Boeing's left hand, and what is it doing? 

(first published, October 2009)

Rush limbaugh: the bully on the republicans' bully pulpit

On his show before the State of the Union on Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh used his direct line to Congressional Republicans to send a clear message:

"The election in November was not about Republicans and Democrats getting along with each other."

He must have read in Christina Bellantoni's piece in Roll Call Monday that "Several Republicans privately admitted [that] Members carefully monitor what's being said on conservative airwaves to make sure they aren't contradicting it or enraging talkers."

Also from Bellantoni's article:

With Members taking cues from the echo chamber as well as their party leadership, it's changed the way business gets done. Limbaugh and Fox News hosts Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity can mobilize more voters than any press release or floor speech, so Members find themselves needing to be responsive or face their wrath.

A Republican strategist and former top Republican National Committee aide told Roll Call that Members have one of two reactions when constituents start a message with "I just heard on Rush today ..." -- "joy and panic."

Limbaugh has more than 20 million listeners, and most Members couldn't dream of their message being so widely spread back home, the GOP strategist said.

"You've got to break eggs to make an omelette, and if you've never been mentioned on these shows in either a favorable or less than favorable context, one has to wonder, are you actually making an impact?" the strategist said.

If Limbaugh or Beck pushes an issue, his audience picks up the phone and taps out e-mails, asking lawmakers to take action. "These Members understand that their constituents are listening to this, and the consequence will elicit action that will place pressure on them," the strategist said.

[...]

The liberal watchdog group Media Matters has compiled examples of Limbaugh and Fox themes that made it from the airwaves to the floors of the House and Senate.

After Fox replayed "sting" videos showing alleged fraud at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, then-Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) introduced a measure to cut ACORN's government funding. Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) wrote a resolution honoring James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles for producing the ACORN videos, and 31 of his GOP colleagues signed on. It never received a vote.

When Beck suggested on his show in June that an Obama administration drilling decision helped liberal billionaire George Soros, two Republican Members repeated the claim using similar language on the House floor. Limbaugh called the BP oil spill fund set up last year a "slush fund," a term repeated by Members in television appearances and during floor debates.

What squirrels these people are...

 

Can you game the ppms? hell yes, and here's how...

As an Arbitron PPM™ panelist for two years, I gotta say it: my mind wandered. How could one game the meters if one were to want such a thing? How could you make it so you get to listen to one thing and have your meter listening to something else?

My favorite is the Portable Pussy Meter (as demonstrated above by our longsuffering kitty, Butterdish). Nothing to it: clip a meter on the cat's collar, put NPR on the radio, and leave for hours, days or weeks. (Don't forget the food & water) We hear that dogs are even more cooperative doing meter duty.

The clunky Arbitron contraption  for metering panelists using headphones (in the middle of the picture below) is ripe for mischief. It's easy: put the meter into the device, plug in the Walkman, tune it to NPR or whatever you want Arbitron to believe you're listening to, then simply forget the headphones, and listen to a guilty pleasure like The Ron & Don Show (KIRO m-f, 3-7p).

(Photo: My meter is listening to the fine strains of Classic KingFm, but I'm listening to John Gibson (KTTH m-f, 8-10p) but tell no one...)

Confessions of a ppm™ panelist: arbitron unplugs blatherwatch ...

Arbitron released us wide-eyed and buck-naked this month back into the dismal world of who-gives-a-damn-what-you-think.

We felt distinctly abandoned. I'm a man without a meter.

For the last 2 years, me and my significant other have been toting around the little pager-like PPMs™ (Portable People Meters™) collecting puny sums of money for couriering data from Seattle to data bots in Columbia, Maryland.

Arbitron surveys 1/40 of one percent of the population and every two years rotates the sample.

We just got rotated. It hurts.

KUOW: there will be pie!

 We're stoked: KUOW's 'nice as pie' news talk & kaffee klatch, Weekday with Steve Scher (m-f, 9-11a): will present "Pie!" in Monday's prime nine o'clock hour.

Though a day late, they'll celebrate Nat'l Pie Day, (It's today, Sunday, Jan. 23) and who knows what might happen?!

That darn Weekday: They wouldn't mention anyone's name in a promo ('anyone' might be self-promoting!) so it's anyone's guess who's showing-- but we're thrumming at the possibilities of big names in pie who might.

Simple Simon, of course, would be the ultimate "get," though that may be too much to dream for. Can't imagine him being in town without everyone knowing, coming down as he is, off his Food Channel reality hit, Pies, Lies & Video Tape.

We're hoping the stentorian, always authoritative, UW weather bore Cliff Mass will be there for a "pie in the sky" assessment.

Before his Simpsonic installation in the American psyche, the Pie Channel's Crusty the Clown was a pie-packin' hitman for MTV. Few knew that the 'crust' in Crusty is... pie crust! (He may be too mean, "wackie," commercial, or opinionated for Weekday, which never likes its guests with pulses more than 10 or so beats higher than their own).

You gotta hand it to Scher and his crew: They tackle the issues that matter. Seattle will never forget Weekday's groundbreaking 2-hours in 2009 that exposed the Southeast Asian cream-puff cartel and the fake "cream" shipped clandestinely into the state from secret, cowless, underground, New Jersey "cream" factories.

Here are a few pie issues we hope they might consider:

• Savory pies filled with animal flesh: abomination or simply delicious? Not sure it can be addressed in the "vegan optional" predominant culture at KUOW, but we'd love it if they would take it on.
• Pot pies from the "chicken gulag" are controversial in pie circles and beg questions about 'slave chickens' that Big Pie has, so far, refused to answer.
• The masturbatory American Pie and the subsequent Internet cults that have sprung up around the movie and the practice. Worried psychologists, parents, police, and bakeries across the nation are conversing and seeking a "hands-on" solution.
• Is the tart a pie, or a copout for pie makers too lazy to crimp? Is the word a mysogynist slur? (more correct: 'topless pie?')

Many pie fruits are out of season: but that hasn't stopped the Weekday crew! When they get a hot topic, they go... damn-the-logistics! Maybe  raisin pies, shoe-flies, pizzas, moon, and clam pies will be examined.

(Steve Scher: "nice as pie," photo: KUOW)

(The Blackberry Channel is pressuring producers to book one of theirs (Marion Berry?) for the Monday show, despite blackberries this time of year are all frozen or shipped-in from Bolivia. They should know that to get on Weekday you can't act like you want to. Besides, there are pressures from the apple lobby, who donate mightily to public radio. Big Apples is a cut-throat crew not unlike the NRA; they've coalesced with Big Nutmeg and The Pie Is Life Institute, (Georgia peaches, Inc.) to dominate pie politics).

We're hoping that the predominantly East Coast Weekday crew and the fruitless season won't cause the program to degenerate to so-called pies like Boston Cremes (it's a damn cake!) or those French abominations using onions, cinnamon and zucchini.

But we trust Scher et al to bring us once again a slice of radio that no one else in Seattle radio would ever attempt to serve up.

 

Chairman kirby wilbur!

Chairman Mao. Chairman Jesus. Chairman Kirby... 

Former talk host of former talk station KVI, Kirby Wilbur beat Luke Esser to become the new chair of the Washington State Republican Party Saturday afternoon.

It's rumored that Esser's peculiar relationship with pigs might have defeated him, but there's no proof of that.

Kirby, an old friend of BlatherWatch is from the wacky Christian wing who have rarely produced much of anything but laughs for their party. He was our guy... also the choice of the most conservative elements of the state GOP.

Less extreme Republicans like Attorney General Rob McKenna, the leading GOP gubernatorial candidate for governor in 2012, personally campaigned for Esser. He represents the so-called Mainstreamers, who are, we're sure, now wringing their hands like bells.

It's not the first time the lulu wing of the party has grasped power... it may not be pretty for the aforementioned pragmatists, but for the liberal observer: it's HBO!

Congratulations, Kirby!

Old Seattle Radio Saturday: "the legend," jerry kay's wake

(Thanks, Mike Barer)

Keith Olbermann RIP 2003-2011

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

“For nearly eight years, Countdown with Keith Olbermann led the charge against conservative misinformation in prime time. He was one of the few voices in the media willing to hold the Bush administration accountable and fight the right-wing smears against progressives and their policies,” said David Brock, the CEO of liberal watchdog Media Matters.

“Keith is an innovator and an extremely talented broadcaster who showed there was a market for progressive views on cable news. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of him soon, and I eagerly await hearing of his next move. And on this evening, I wish him ‘good night and good luck’.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47982.html#ixzz1Bjq7SRtX

 

What violent right wing rhetoric? con't ad nauseam...