Random Thoughts and Ramblings of a Radio Jock

Friday, December 24, 2004

It's Just a Cat!

SAN FRANCISCO Dec 23, 2004 — The first cloned-to-order pet sold in the United States is named Little Nicky, a 9-week-old kitten delivered to a Texas woman saddened by the loss of a cat she had owned for 17 years.

The kitten cost its owner $50,000 and was created from DNA from her beloved cat, named Nicky, who died last year.

Ok, I can see how this lady would miss her cat. I've lost pets before and it brought me down... for about a day each. IT'S A CAT!! I'm sorry but I just don't see how someone could get so attached to am animal that they would be willing to pay more than a lot of people make in a year for a cloned copy of their dearly departed animal. She could have simply gotten a new cat. Like one at an animal shelter that could be destroyed unless someone adopts it. It's not our place to play God and try to bring our dearly departed back to life. Death is a part of life and, yes, we must accept it.

I could think of many things she could have done with that money. She could have given it to a deserving charity (like the Salvation Army). She could have given it to her family. Hell, if the money was burning that big of a hole in her pocket I know of a broke ass DJ she could have given it to (*cough* me *cough*).

I find it iroinic that the cat's name is "Little Nicky." Do we not remember the movie by that name? Little Nicky was the seed of Satan! Hmm...

This world has officially gone to Hell.

--Jonathan

posted by Jonathan at 10:24 AM | 1 Comments

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Random Thoughts and Ramblings From the Dirty Dirty!

Finally, Jonathan has come back to the dirty south!

Ok, ok, I'm not really like The Rock but it's great to be back home! Honestly, it's almost like I never left. Meridian (the town where my old station, Q101, is) hasn't changed one bit except for the new Sam's Club. Philadelphia (my home town) literally hasn't changed a bit. I've even run into a few friends of mine and, well, they're the same. So, yeah, Mississippi has been boring for the most part. But, again, it's great to be at home.

It's just great to see my family, though. Me and my mom have always been close and I had really missed her. Tonight we hung around the house and watched a movie, just like we used to do sometimes. My younger sister has lost a ton of weight! I was really impressed. Not that she was huge or anything but she just looks like she's in really good shape now. Watch out fellas! My brother, well, I've hardly seen him. He went with me and Liz to lunch at the Hard Rock Beach Club today and that was the last time I saw him today. But it's all good. My older sister is doing well too. She mentioned bring her so-called husband over on Christmas day. Sure, she can do that. But that doesn't meant that I have to go out of my way to make him feel welcome. In my eyes, he isn't welcome over here but this isn't my house and I don't make those calls.

I talked to Emily a few minutes ago and I didn't realize how much I miss her! I know it's only been a couple of days since I've seen her but I'd normally get to see her tonight and I've really missed her, especially over the last couple of hours.. It just drives me crazy that we're far away and that I won't get to see her again until Monday or Tuesday of next week.

As you may have heard, there was a HUGE winter storm in Kentucky and Indiana yesterday. Yes, I drove in that mess. It was because of that slop that it took me 14 hours to get here instead of 10. I mean, you can't really travel somewhere in a reasonable amount of time if you're going at 30 miles an hour for most of the first leg of your trip. I need to give a hats off to the road crews in Louisville, KY because they really had their stuff together. The roads were clear and everything was good. Indiana, on the other hand, was horriable. I don't know what it was but they just weren't prepared at all. I hardly saw a plow out when I was driving through Indiana (I even almost got stuck) but I saw several once I crossed into Kentucky. In short, the road crews in Kentucky were awesome and the crews in Indiana suck!

Of course, I must talk about radio! The radio on my way down here was boring for the most part. The one thing I was most surprised at was how bad the stations in Indianapolis sounded! Programming wise, they weren't too bad (especially Radio Now and the country station--I don't remember the calls) but their processing was awful. Most of the stations were pumped up to the point of distortion. Yuck. Nashville had the best radio on the trip in my opinion; I especially enjoyed listening to 107.5 The River (the number one CHR in Nashville). Louisville and Huntsville had the most boring radio I've ever heard. It was just vanilla to the point of tears (no offense Ben or Scotty--I know you guys are the exceptions to this!). I have to mention this stations I ran across somewhere near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. WUHU (pronounced, I shit you not, Woo-Hoo on the air) was, well, awful. The music wasn't bad but the imaging and the jocks were awful, just awful. And the name of the station was laughable. Advice to management of "Woo-Hoo:" Just because you're in a small market doesn't mean that you have to sound that way. Trust me, I know this from experience.

And then I got to hear radio in my former market. Absolutely nothing has changed, except for the blues station across the street... it doesn't sound shitty anymore. My former station sounds really good! They've expanded a bit and are now fully mainstream CHR, with a rhythmic tilt at night. That was what I wanted to do with the station when I was MD but management really didn't see eye-to-eye with me on that. Glad that they finally realized that that's what needed to happen. My only complaint is that the imaging needs to be updated badly! Most of the sweepers that are on there were running when I left in May (seven months ago).

I dropped by there on my way home and I got to talk to Marc B. (mix show host), "The Revrand" Paul Todd (night guy on the Urban AC) and Bill Brock (the new PD of Q101). Bill's a really nice guy and really knows what he's doing on the station. I was very glad to meet him and I now fully know that Q101 is in great hands. I feel very confident about the future of the station and I'm happy that I'm one of the people who laid the foundation for its success. I suppose it's almost like raising a kid and finally having to let it go and hoping that it continues to grow and prosper.

Well, that's all I have for now. I'm sure I'll post after Christmas sometime. Until then, I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas! Catch you on the other side!

--Jonathan

posted by Jonathan at 11:57 PM | 0 Comments

Monday, December 13, 2004

Picky Media

The verdict in the Scott Peterson case was announced today. As anyone could have predicted, he was given the death penelty. Good, I believe the jury made the right decision. Anyone who takes another human life should be given the same fate. "An eye for an eye..."

But that's not what this post is really about, although I will be talking about the Peterson case a good bit. What I want to talk about is media stupidity.

The media gave hours and hours of coverage to this case. From the moment Laci Peterson went missing, the media went into hyper mode to talk about the case. They had experts on Larry King Live to discuss it. They had live coverage of almost every aspect of this case.

It was overkill.

It was stupid.

What made this case different or more special than any other murder case? Do you realize that about 16,500 people were murdered in this country last year? That's an average of about 45 people a day.

Read that again. And click the story I have linked above if you don't believe me.

On average 45 people were murdered last year. Yet, just about the only murder case we heard about was the Laci Peterson case. Why is this? Was it because Scott and Laci Peterson were "pretty?" Was it because it was in Modesto, California? Was it because of the seriousness of the murder (not only was she murdered but their unborn child)? I don't have those answers. I just know that it was unfair. What makes this case any different from the other 44 or so people who were killed that day? I can assure you, the other murders committed around that time were no less serious and I'm sure some were even more vicious than Laci Peterson's murder.

I just don't see how this case deserved any more attention than any other murder case. A young lady in my home town was killed not too long ago. Where were the CNN cameras to cover her murder? Did Larry King interview her grieving family? No. Does anyone outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi know that Mandy Davis was raped and murdered by some monster of a man? No.

The media will only give this sort of attention to cases that have a "good story." As a professional, I understand why they do this. But it wasn't mean that I think it's right. It all comes down to ratings, my friend. Numbers (ratings and sales figures) are what drive news reporting, not the truth or anything else nobile. If a network or station believes that it can get ratings by sensationalizing one certain story or issue, they'll do it.

This is part of the reason why the media are losing creadability with the people.

In an ideal world, I would prefer that the media wouldn't pick-and-choose which stories it wanted to cover but I know that this isn't an ideal world and that that will never happen. It's just unfortunate that the preception is given that the life of a young lady in Modesto, California, is worth more than the life of a young lady in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Maybe the old saying is true: "Preception is reality."

--Jonathan

posted by Jonathan at 10:29 PM | 1 Comments

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

"Indecency"

Regardless of who you are or where you work (yes, Clayton, I'm even talking to you guys), this should scare the the living day lights out of you if you're a broadcaster. I got this from All Access:

99.8% of all indecency complaints filed with the FCC in 2003 and 99.9% of those in 2004 up to OCTOBER (except for those regarding the SUPER BOWL halftime show) were filed by a single activist group, the PARENTS TELEVISION COUNCIL, according to an FCC analysis obtained by MEDIAWEEK.

The information, combined with information obtained from the FCC by ADVANCE PUBLICATIONS web expert and former TV GUIDE critic JEFF JARVIS that indicated only 23 individuals had complained about the "MARRIED BY AMERICA" program that led to a fine against FOX and its affiliates, appears to confirm that other than the JANET JACKSON incident, the FCC has not received a significant number of complaints that would demonstrate that radio and TV programming is violating community decency standards.

As ALL ACCESS has previously noted, several of the high profile radio indecency fines, including the fines that led to BUBBA THE LOVE SPONGE's dismissal by CLEAR CHANNEL and the fines slapped on EMMIS for MANCOW MULLER's show, were issued after single complaints by individuals, as opposed to any groundswell of community objection. But FCC Chairman MICHAEL POWELL, in last FRIDAY's NEW YORK TIMES op-ed piece, said that while advocacy groups generate many complaints, "that's not unusual in today's Internet world...that fact does not minimize the merits of the groups' concerns." And Commissioner KATHLEEN ABERNATHY told MEDIAWEEK that the number of complaints doesn't affect whether the FCC finds a show indecent, saying "(a)s long as you're following precedents and the law, it shouldn't matter."

Read that again. Seriously. I had to.

This is very scary if you're a broadcaster. One group of people has this much power. One group got several Fox-owned and affiliate stations fined for something that wasn't even that offensive. One group raised the biggest stink about a boob (as if none of us have ever seen one).

One group is ruining our careers and our lives.

Pay special attention to the part above where it talks about the Fox fine. It says that ONLY 23 people complained about the show in question. If you do a little more digging (this tid bit was actually in my station's show prep on Monday) you'll find that all 23 of these people are affiliated with the Parents' Television Council. You'll also find that of the complaints that the FCC was able to find and turn over to Fox, only one person who filed a complaint actually watched the show. One person.

Read that again so you can be sure you fully understand what I'm saying.

Yep, you read it correctly. Only one person actually saw the show. The rest of the complaintants turned in complaints via form letters probably written by PTC brass. So thanks to basically one person affiliated with an overly conservative group, Fox Net and its affiliates now have to pay a fine for something that didn't really offend anyone except one ultra uptight prick who was probably only trying to make a name for himself.

Let's look at Howard Stern. Let me just say that I've lost all respect for Howard because he's turning his back on the medium that made him a millionaire many times over and that made him a household name. But I digress. Anyway, he's largly been fined on his Florida affiliates because of one person. One.

Would you believe that a majority of people surveyed say that they don't find Howard to be offensive, nor do they find radio and television in general to be offensive? It's true. This "public outrage" over indencency was obviously largely overblown by the idiotic media. Don't fall for hype, go with facts and those speak for themselves. By and large, we're not offending many people. Take that, PTC.

It's scary that a complaint from one person can ruin the career of a broadcaster, get a station fined or even killed off. This has got to change and if we want it to change it has to begin with those of us who are on the front lines of this whole ordeal. The ones in the suits can't make this happen because they don't have as much to lose as we do.

We must take this personally.

What can we do? We must contact our senators and congressmen to let them know that our livelihoods depend on things changing. Among the changes made, there should be some kind of clear-cut rules about what we can and can't do on the air. There should also be regulations that say complaints made in form letters will not be accepted (this is so a group with sheeple members can't have so much power). There must be a detailed account of the alleged indecency to accompany the complaint; in other words, there should be come indication that the person making the complaint actually watched or listened to the offending show. And there should be a regulation that says a significant percentage of the estimated listening or viewing audience (as determined by Arbitron or Neilson) has to file a complaint in order for there to be an investigation. This garbage of one person being able to complain and getting a fine levied (or worse) is idiotic and this must be changed.

If you agree with me, the next step is up to you. Write your law makers and let them know that you're fed up with this garbage and you want to see changes. Get the management of your station involved. If we band together, we can get things going.

Or do nothing and watch things get even worse. Allow one group to have as much power as the PTC and watch our careers and stations go the way of the do do. Sitting on our thumbs isn't going to cut it. We must be pro-active.

It's up to us, guys.

What say you?

--Jonathan

posted by Jonathan at 10:41 PM | 0 Comments