Coast to Coast AM Election Night

Today is Election Day, the beginning or the end of a dark age, depending on who you want to win. I'll stay away from the election and politics and direct my anger at a more convenient, and for regular readers, a more familiar target. I'm talking about George Noory, the current host of Coast to Coast AM.

I've taken aim at George before, for his ruining one of my favorite radio programs and for his complete lack of interviewing style. You can read about that here, here, and here. I've got yet another bone to pick with old George.

Tonight, Election Night, George has extended Coast to Coast AM another hour for election coverage. Election coverage. It's almost as if George has no idea what the show he's hosted for over a decade is supposed to be about. Coast to Coast is a show about the paranormal. I can hear the news, or the election on every station on the dial. I tune into Coast for something special, something specific. Unless we're electing a reptilian alien, and I'm pretty sure we're not, despite what you've heard, that's not in Coast's wheelhouse.

This is one week after a catastrophic Ghost to Ghost show. Coming once a year, a decades long tradition on Coast, this is a night-long show where callers phone in and tell ghost stories, and it rocks... until recently. The last few years George has cut it down by hours. Last week we barely got an hour and a half. That's what we waited a year for?? Why couldn't the Ghost to Ghost show have been extended???

Ghosts and the paranormal are what the show's about. It even says so on their website, nothing but news about UFOs and ghosts and Bigfoot. Or is the website too hard for someone who needs to have Uber and Instagram explained to him? It's not like George's interviewing skills could be improved (well, actually they could, a little research beforehand, not napping while a guest talks, and maybe a follow-up question once in a while...), but you could give us more ghosts and less election!

It's November, we are all sick of politics, but most of us who love Coast to Coast AM are tuning in for the paranormal. So if you're listening tonight, and can actually get through the call screeners, ask George when the real Coast to Coast AM is coming back. If we can't get the leader we want, at least give us the radio we want!

More Prince, and Coast to Coast AM

I was numb all day yesterday. I just couldn't believe it was true. I did my duty though. I wrote about it here, and I wrote about it on Biff Bam Pop! right here, and even did a short episode of The GAR! Podcast on it found here and here. I had to leave the South Jersey Writers' Group's Open House last night early because I was just worn out, and who knows, just maybe a bit depressed as well. When I got home, MTV was playing Prince videos, and then Purple Rain, still I was devastated, but unfeeling really. But it didn't really hit me that Prince was gone, until I was in bed listening to my nighttime nemesis Coast to Coast AM.

I had tuned in to the later half of the program, which sometimes, if we're lucky, will have some content of what Coast to Coast AM used to be known for. Otherwise it's typical radio drivel, the same old same old. Coast used to be unique, now for the most part, it's boring. But every once in a while, we old fans will get a scrap of what used to be. The guest last night was rock historian R. Gary Patterson. And of course the king of no-research, host George Noory.

Now I don't blame Patterson for saying it was Vanity was in Purple Rain instead of Apollonia, that's an easy mistake, especially for someone who admittedly had only a passing knowledge of Prince. He was a bit after the man's time, and Patterson does know his stuff when it comes to older rock stars and their mysterious deaths - I bow to him in that area.

It was George that infuriated. I can understand if he didn't do any show prep. Noory never does any show prep, no matter what he says. He comes in to interviews as empty-headed as he leaves, as if his mind was a sieve. Perhaps that's why details of Prince's life, that had to have been all over the news all freaking day, somehow eluded him. Yeah, he asked all the stupid questions that that seemingly unique person who had never heard of Prince would ask.

I was embarrassed for the guest, I was angry at Noory, and that's when it hit me, that's when the tears came. We've lost Prince, as surely as we've lost Coast to Coast AM, and David Bowie… Prince is gone. And when people stop talking, and when the radio and TV stop playing, he will still be gone. And, anger at a lousy dying radio show aside, I will still be mourning.

Twice Shy: The Return of Art Bell

We've all heard the saying (or at least the song) "once bitten, twice shy." Well, that's how I feel about the latest return of Art Bell. He keeps going away, and then unexpectedly coming back, only to leave again just as unexpectedly. I'm a fan, but I really have to wonder how many fans he really has left after all these boy-who-cried-wolf returns and retirements. Pretty soon, no one will care, if it hasn't gotten there already.

The double-edged Sword of Damocles is that while Art Bell is perhaps a broadcast legend and one of the best interviewers in the business, he is also just as dependable as groundhogs are at predicting the weather. As in the past, I can't help feeling that Art will eventually let me down.

Rather than talk about what a crappy host George Noory is in comparison, and how he's destroyed Coast to Coast AM, a once reputable program despite its questionable content - I will concentrate on Art's newest incarnation. If you want to read about how much Noory sucks and has ruined the show, you can go here and here.

After Art's abortive attempt at satellite radio, resulting in thirty-odd pretty cool episodes (about which he said this week "satellite doesn't like me"), he has retained that show's name for his online radio network, Dark Matter. It appears to be 24/7 with genre programming, also available on the TuneIn Radio app, on which many of us fans listen to his hundreds of Coast reruns.

Apparently there are a number of radio stations who have agreed to broadcast the new show, called Midnight in the Desert, live from midnight to three in the morning. Art's insistence on only broadcasting live, and at that time has been problematic for this fan who usually is just getting to bed at two or three. At least do a repeat right after, ya know?

The format, topics, and guests are much the same as they were back in the classic Art Bell Coast to Coast AM days. Art has not lost his skills as an interviewer, and the commercials are not just fun and off, they are insane - the show is worth a listen just for that. The 'news' segments however border on the truly insane, more like "Ancient Aliens" meets a fanatical End Times website - my least favorite part of the show.

One of the things I always enjoyed about the old Art C2C was how interactive it was with its fandom. This is something that has been lost with Noory's reign on Coast and their absolute refusal to answer anyone on Facebook or Twitter. Why have them if you won't use them? With Art's new show there is a new excitement in social media. I have been enjoying a few listening parties with new friends on Twitter that have been a lot of fun.

So far so good, but how long before that sword drops? Time will tell, enjoy it while you can. Once bitten, twice shy...

Coast to Coast AM Is Dead

That's right, Coast to Coast AM is dead. Why don't you just get it over with and rename it The George Noory Show, because it bears zero resemblance to what Coast used to be about and stand for.

Yeah, I've talked about this before, but it bears repeating. Host George Noory continues to veer farther and farther away from the topics and the style that first attracted me to Coast to Coast AM. And of course, there is no way to address my concerns to anyone involved in the show. Coast has a Twitter account and a Facebook page, both of which make standard practice of ignoring what the fans have to say. I think I might sooner win the lottery than get a reply on Twitter from these folks. George and company are going to do what they are going to do, and don't care what you think, and it seems, on a personal level, what I, a fan and listener for as long as I've known about the show - roughly eighteen years. And if I don't matter after nearly two decades, then really, who does?

I used to listen every night, without fail, all night, even when I would have to get up early the next morning. I loved Art Bell, but it isn't just a pro-Art anti-George thing. I loved the other hosts from the old days, especially Rollye James, Ian Punnett, and John B. Wells. I even dug George Knapp, and Dave Schraeder of Darkness Radio rocks, if only they'd let him be himself and do his own topics. But nowadays, I'll listen once or twice a week for a segment or two, and for the most part, unless it's a 'real' Coast topic or an interesting guest, I am bored to tears.

The real eye opener as to what's wrong with Noory's Coast program becomes obvious listening to what I normally do these days - reruns of Art Bell's days on Coast to Coast AM. Most of the time it sounds like George is asleep or not paying attention. His questions are obvious and childlike, and indicative that he has done no research whatsoever on the guest or topic. One listen to the old Art show will find a questioning host, an exchange of ideas between host and guest, and a learning experience for the listener. Often Art would launch into a debate to counter the guest's thesis - asking the questions we the listeners were asking out loud ourselves.

And the topics - the strange, the paranormal - that was what Coast was all about. Now those are for the most part gone, except for a scrap thrown out like garbage to a stray dog once or twice a week. If I wanted talk about the news, politics, health, technology, and religion, I could listen to any other radio show out there. If I want Bigfoot, Atlantis, and UFOs, which I do, Coast to Coast AM used to stand for that - something unique in the great dying wasteland of radio. Now it's just another crap radio show.

I guess I'll be listening to the Art Bell reruns for now. It doesn't seem like Coast will be changing before it dies from declining ratings.

Art Bell, Again

Yes. Again. Seriously. I don't believe it, but then again, yeah, I do. Because he's done it before.

This past week legendary radio host Art Bell quit his radio show. Again. The current incarnation, "Dark Matter," broadcast on satellite radio by Sirius XM, is over. Bell cited technical concerns, as well as a small audience. In other words, it was hard.

And it's not like he hasn't done it before either. He's quit before, or left under mysterious, sometimes highly suspect, circumstances, with little advance warning, or concern for his audience - no matter how big or small. As a matter of fact, he may well be more remembered for his vanishing acts than his radio act when history is done with him. He quits so often, it's almost an industry joke.

The way he has left, and the reasons he's given, all indicate one thing. Art Bell was doing this show for himself - not his audience, his fans, his loyal listeners. This was about him, not us. We would have listened without guests, without callers, and without a clear signal. Surely I'm not the only one who listened years ago with crappy reception from an AM station two cities ago, am I? It was hard for him. Again. So he quit.

Yeah, I'm angry, but that doesn't dispel the man's talent as a broadcaster, talk radio host, and interviewer. I would rather listen to bad Art Bell reruns than the best George Noory interview on Coast to Coast AM. At least Art would study up on his guest, ask intelligent questions, and not nap during the interview.

But now, not only is Art gone, but Coast to Coast AM has left Sirius XM as well. I am forced to rethink my satellite radio subscription once again. I love Opie & Anthony and Radio Classics, EW Radio, and I'm digging the sadly temporary David Bowie station, but really the only time I have dependably to listen is late at night, the former realm of Art and Coast.

Art has left me high and dry once again. I should have seen it coming. I hope Sirius XM saw it coming, and wrote that contract appropriately. I hope the quitter pays. Thanks, Art, for six weeks at least.

Let Coast Be Coast

We've talked about my radio habits and obsession here before. Up until I got satellite radio, I still enjoyed exploring the AM dial in the middle of the night. Some time in the late nineties I discovered Art Bell and Coast to Coast AM.

This was more than a year before Art finally came to Philadelphia, syndicated on 1210 AM. I remember an intriguing and heated discussion about UFOs and alien abductions. I also remember that night getting out of my warm bed to log on the computer at around three in the morning to see the artist's rendering of the aliens, you know, a visual to go with the audio. Yeah, I was hooked, and have been for close to fifteen years.

Mostly I was delighted to find talk radio that was not about politics. I could hear that nonsense anywhere and any time. I like different in my talk radio. It's probably why I have been attracted to things like Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Dr. Ruth, Dr. Drew, radio dramas, audiobooks, and Joe Frank. Coast to Coast AM was definitely different.

I was overjoyed when the program found its Philly home and was a faithful listener almost every night. My insomnia proved helpful in that endeavor. Night after night I listened to a myriad of guests and topics, always in the realm of the paranormal. That was Coast's forte. If you wanted intelligent (and sometimes not so) discussion about ufology, cryptozoology, mythology, pseudoscience, conspiracy theories or anything involving the odd or surreal, Coast to Coast AM was for you.

There's a lot that can said about the host Art Bell. Surrounded by rumor and conspiracy himself, he was and is a consummate radio professional. No matter the insanity or unlikeliness of the guest or caller, he was always fair, entertaining, and at the top of his game. There are few talk radio hosts as sharp and composed as Art Bell.

Due to personal issues, Art has had to retire from radio and the show several times - the final time was in the late 2000s. He has been replaced the last time by George Noory. George is quite talented himself, but every time I hear an old Art show, it becomes quite obvious how inferior the replacement is to the original host. He never challenges guests or listeners, is often uninformed, and frequently seems inattentive or not even listening to guests and callers.

Noory also seems to have a problem with open lines. He doesn't do it that often. Anyone who knows talk radio knows that it's not about the host, it's about the callers. Art knew this, and his regular technique was to not screen callers as is usually done - he just put them on the air. Often open lines was the best part of the old Coast to Coast AM. Since George has come in board, there also seems a shift in topic, more toward politics, and current events. I'm not happy with that at all.

The two biggest nights of the year on Coast to Coast AM are New Year's Eve and Halloween. On New Year's Eve they take psychic predictions for the upcoming year, and on Halloween, the show becomes 'Ghost to Ghost' as callers tell ghost stories. I love Ghost to Ghost. However, it too has gone downhill in recent years. Noury screens the calls, taking away the spontaneity, as well as the need to think on his feet, I suppose.

This year, last night, Noory even cut short the program by taking up the first hour with news, and an interview with a security expert. Seriously? Real Coast to Coast topics are rare enough recently, and now you're truncating the best show of the year??

It's no wonder that other radio programs similar to the original Coast to Coast AM, like Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis and A View from Space, are growing in popularity and Coast is falling. Politics and current events can be heard anywhere on the dial, the topics that made Coast great can not. I want my show back.

Please! Let Coast be Coast!

Bill Webber Passes

Philadelphia radio and television legend Bill Webber passed away this weekend. He was scheduled for heart surgery but died before it could be done. He was 80.

Webber was a fixture on the Philadelphia media scene for over five decades, and never retired. He was a radio disc jockey, television pioneer, talk show host, kids show host, telethon emcee, announcer, nice guy, a giant of a man, and an industry legend. He served for years as an officer in the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1999. He worked in many, if not most of the media outlets in the Philadelphia area.

That would be enough, but on a personal level, I feel like I’ve lost a part of my childhood. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bill Webber doubled as Wee Willie Webber on local channel 17 on weekday afternoons as the host of their children’s programming. Bill Webber was the face that greeted me when I got home from school and filled in the commercial breaks during such life-shaping TV shows like "Speed Racer" and "Ultraman."

That might sound silly, but when I met the man in person years later - thinner, older and sporting a goatee – Mr. Webber was thrilled to hear that he was remembered so fondly and insisted that I, then a grown man, call him Wee Willie and even imitated Ultraman’s Spacium Ray gesture at me as he walked away. A nice man, and a very cool man. He will be missed by many.

Pop Culture Poser

Brad Benson, of Brad Benson Hyundai. This guy bugs me. His commercials appear far too frequently on News Jersey 101.5 FM. He does his own commercials, making pop culture references left and right, and trying to be funny, and one would hope (for his sake at least), selling cars.

The thing that bugs me, other than the frequency of the commercials, and his implied agreement with some of the station’s gay-unfriendly hosts (his ad about the pilots who missed their landing is horrendous and irresponsible, and don’t get me started on Dennis and Michele), is that he often gets his pop culture references wrong.

Now it’s one thing for KYW to pronounce Janeanne Garofolo’s name as "Jane-anne Garroh-folloh" or CNN to have commentators at the Michael Jackson memorial who don’t know who Berry Gordy is, but this falls into a whole ‘nother category.

On the surface, Brad Benson saying Susan Boyle was on the British "American Idol" instead of "Britain’s Got Talent," for instance, may seem petty, but look at it this way… Have you ever bought a car? Remember the scary and unreasonable amount of detailed paperwork involved in buying a car? Yeah, that’s a lot of stuff, and a lot of stuff to make sure is absolutely right, T’s crossed and I’s dotted.

Do you want a guy who won’t even do a moment’s research on a commercial he’s paying for to handle details on a car you’re paying for? I don’t. I want someone very detail-oriented, someone who won’t make mistakes and just laugh it off. I guess I’m not buying a Hyundai from Brad Benson.

RIP Steve Friedman

Mr. Movie has passed away, and I didn’t know. I just thought he was sick and folks were filling in for him. But he had died, sadly of kidney failure, more than a month ago, and he just isn’t there any more.

Radio is a strange thing. We always assume it’s going to be there, and by connection, the people on the radio will be there as well. Tonight I heard an errant comment by the hosts of "Remember When" on 1210 AM where it was said Steve was looking down from heaven. I raced to the internet, and there it was, over a month ago, Steve Friedman had passed.

The man they called Mr. Movie had been a radio fixture in the Delaware Valley for more than three decades. Even when I disagreed with the man, which was quite often, I loved him. His passion for movies and his scary encyclopedic knowledge of them was awesome by any stretch of the imagination. In the three decades he was on the air I went from a casual lover of film to running a video store to being somewhat of a movie critic myself – and I can’t help but think that he had some indirect influence over that.

For most of his uneven run on Philadelphia radio I was a regular listener. I called and spoke with him on more than one occasion – notably once trying to recover from the serious WTF experience of seeing Blue Velvet for the first time.

He taught me more about film than I can’t to admit. I don’t think I see any new movie without thinking 'I wonder what Mr. Movie will think of this.' Steve Friedman is a voice in the night that will be missed.

The Price of Satellite Radio

I love my satellite radio. I love it so much that I rarely listen to terrestrial radio any more. Maybe some WXPN and maybe some NJ 101.5 FM, but let’s face it, my favorite terrestrial programs like Coast to Coast AM and some of the NPR stuff are all on satellite now. Not much reason to turn on the old fashioned radio any more.

Just got a notice from XM (yeah, they merged with Sirius, but they’ll always be XM to me) that my subscription rates are going up. The reasons cited are as follows:

”Music royalty rights were established by the U.S. Congress as part of the Copyright Act. This Act requires payment of copyright music royalties to recording artists, musicians and recording companies who hold copyrights in sound recordings.

“These royalties have recently increased dramatically, principally as a result of a decision made by the Copyright Royalty Board, which is designated by the Library of Congress to set royalty rates for sound recordings. Beginning on July 29, 2009, a “U.S. Music Royalty Fee” of $1.98/month* for primary subscriptions and $.97/month* for multi-receiver subscriptions will be effective upon your next renewal. This fee will be used directly to offset increased payments from XM to the recording industry.”

Now really, that’s fine. As a writer, I’m not someone who’s ever going to begrudge anyone royalties, that’s just how things work, and furthermore should work. I don’t have a real problem with the price hike, as long as my favorite stuff remains on the XM. What irked me was what I found when I went to the XM website and took a survey.

The survey was about my listening preferences, but seemed to mention little of what I actually listen to on XM. I stopped finding Howard Stern funny some time before he left terrestrial radio, so that’s not for me. I can count on one hand the number of times in three years I’ve listened to any of the nearly hundred sports channels, and Oprah barely amuses me even when she’s on TV. The big guns don’t interest me.

Most of what I listen to is talk radio. I’m addicted to Coast to Coast AM, which while occupying nearly eleven hours of programming per day, was not mentioned by the survey. Opie and Anthony get a brief mention, probably because they bitch on air about Sirius’ prejudice mercilessly. But nowhere did I see other things I listen to faithfully like the old time radio shows on Radio Classics and the wonderful audiobook variety at Book Radio. All there was in the survey was the rather vague description of ‘talk entertainment.’ That covers a lot of ground, and a lot of stuff I really don’t like. How can this survey really tell them anything?

The XM world has been getting smaller and smaller since the Sirius merge - mostly because it was more of a takeover than a merge. The mega-powered Sirius, with the ratings powerhouse (apparently) Stern behind it appeared to change everything on the XM dial as if they and they alone were calling the shots. We lost truly entertaining music stations in favor of the inferior Sirius versions of them.

My point is that for the price increase, how about some verification we’ll keep the programming we enjoy? How about it, XM? Sorry, I mean, how about it, Sirius?


.

RIP Irv Homer

Legendary Philadelphia radio talk show host Irv Homer passed away last night after suffering a heart attack while speaking at Eastern University. He went out in a way I'm sure he would have liked - talking to the people who loved him.

As someone who became addicted to talk radio as a teenager in the 1970s, Philadelphia's Talk Station WWDB 96.5 FM was the place to be and Irv Homer was the voice, and in many cases, the voice of reason. In an industry today where talk show hosts are either to the far left or the far right, Irv was dead center, and in many cases he shot holes in both sides with logic and common sense.

Before, after and even during the golden WWDB years Irv talked at other places on the dial, always on the air and always fighting the good fight, teaching us all to think for ourselves, read between the lines and be critical of the status quo. He warned constantly of becoming one of the sheeple and told us all to be critical thinkers.

We have lost a crusader, a defender, a friend, and a father - not just a radio legend. I offer condolences to his family and friends everywhere. Irv will be greatly missed, and radio will not be the same again.


.

Ron Silver Passes

Ron Silver, actor and political activist passed away Sunday from esophageal cancer.

He is probably best known for Reversal of Fortune, Enemies: A Love Story and his numerous television roles for which he was nominated for various awards. He also most notably, to me at least, was in Blue Steel with Jamie Lee Curtis, a film which languishes in my personal bottom list of the worst films ever made.

Silver was also very politically active, and was quoted as saying the following: "By inclination I am more of a politician than I am an actor. I care more about public policy. I care more about pro-choice, the environment, homelessness, and nuclear issues than I do about any part."

Radio Pioneer Frank Ford Dies at 92

Frank Ford passed away today from complications from stroke. Frank Ford was one of the innovators in talk radio, and radio in general, having been in the business since 1937.

The 'father of talk radio in Philadelphia' was also an owner of the Valley Forge Music Fair, as well as Auto Sport Importers. In his radio career he worked at WIP, WCAU, WHAT, WPEN, WFLN, WDVT, but is most known for his time with Philadelphia's most beloved and most missed talk station, WWDB-FM.

Ford retired from talk radio in 2000 when WWDB changed its format to music. Talk radio hasn't been the same since. He was 92 and is survived by his wife, Lynne Abraham, District Attorney of the city of Philadelphia. We have truly lost one of the legends of radio. He'll be missed.

And THAT Is the Rest of the Story...

Radio legend Paul Harvey passed away today at the age of 90.

His broadcasts of "New and Comment" and "The Rest of the Story" ran on the ABC Radio Network for decades.

Always opinionated, sometimes entertaining and sometimes controversial, he always took a look inside the news story as he saw it.

A Tale of Two Michelles

This is the tale of two Michelles, one with one L and one with two, and a happy situation, unfortunately at the expense of a Judi.


Several months ago, New Jersey 101.5 FM’s After Hours program with Michele Pilenza went from a train wreck that I would listen to only to hear the carnage, to an actually interesting radio show. This was due to the presence of Michelle Jerson, subbing for Pilenza while she had her baby.

Michelle Jerson was a breath of fresh air. Not only was she a more experienced, and in my humble opinion, a much more entertaining broadcaster, but she was much more open-minded - something that might be important in doing a radio talk show that purports to give advice about lifestyle, relationships, sex and romance.

When Michele Pilenza with one L returned from maternity leave, she stepped easily back into the same shoes she left. Judgmental and close-minded as ever, she was back, and I was out of there. I was missing Ms. Jerson badly, as I really wanted to enjoy the show as an intelligent talk show instead of a nightly train wreck. Seriously, I just couldn't take Ms. Pilenza saying inane things like "fat people shouldn't date" or "ugly people should just give up" or telling callers that they were "freaks" because of some miscellaneous fetish. Like I said, she was real open-minded.

Luckily, or unluckily depending on your outlook, Ms. Pilenza has left the evening airways for the mornings, joining Dennis Malloy to replace the departing Judi Franco. As I wasn't a fan, this didn't affect me, but the side effect did - Michelle Jerson returned to the nighttime After Hours slot. Way to go, Michelle, you've got a regular listener.

The Rock Is Back

The rock is back.

Um, yeah.

*yawn*

Just in time. 'Cause I just got XM Radio for my birthday.

At 5 PM today WYSP 94 FM in Philadelphia changed its format. Again. Now we're back to rock, progressive hard rock from all indications, and away from talk as it had been for a few months. Two hours into the the Kidd Chris Show, with guests Opie & Anthony in town for a special event, the format changed. The first three songs played were "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns 'n' Roses, "Back in Black" by AC/DC and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana as if to strengthen the point. Most notably, Kidd Chris did not come back to finish his show.

Now I'm a talk radio fan just as much as I'm a radio fan. I love music and I love radio.

I was the kid in high school who carried a boombox with me everywhere. I was the kid who knew all the new music, sometimes before the radio played it. I knew and listened to every station on the dial FM and AM. I bought everything and made mix-tapes on an almost daily basis. In college I embarked on dual careers in radio and in music journalism. I have several thousands of songs on my iTunes and reload my iPod almost daily. Nothing makes me happier than my music. So another decent music station in the normally dead zone of Philadelphia radio is a good thing, right?

Maybe.

As I said I'm also a talk radio fan. I've been one since the mid-1970s listening to Larry King and then WWDB-FM with their all-talk format. I know talk show hosts as well as I know music. I have as many fond memories of Irv Homer and Richard Hayes as I do of Kate Bush and David Bowie. Over the years, talk radio flourished and changed, mostly in part to the wildly successful efforts of Howard Stern, along with his imitators and innovators. Stern at WYSP soon led to Opie & Anthony coming there as well. My tastes soon followed, more in line with O&A than Stern.

When Stern left for Sirius satellite radio, some said that was the end of terrestrial radio. Having listened to David Lee Roth, who replaced Howard here in Philly, I would tend to agree. Fortunately O&A returned to replace Roth, and suddenly I didn't miss Stern all that much anymore, if at all.

The part that excited me was that along with the return of O&A, WYSP seemed to be making a stand as a talk station. The Barsky Show that followed O&A was certainly better than the immature tripe going on over at NJ 101.5 FM and had a fun quality to it, always enjoyable to have on. Even Matt & Huggy had an endearing quality. My real faves though had to be Loveline and John and Jeff shows that covered overnights.

I love Loveline, not just for the information given or the entertainment value of the hosts and guests, but for the callers. Callers to these types of shows are demented. The same appeal holds for me with both Drs. Joy and laura, neither host do I like, but their callers provide me with hours of entertainment. I'll also miss John and Jeff who were an intriguing second choice when Coast to Coast AM had an uninteresting topic that night.

Of course all of this is a shame. I highly doubt WYSP's new rock format will be enough to regain the ratings edge they may have lost, and no matter how good the music is, it won't anywhere near as interesting as any talk program could be. I wish them luck, because other than listening to an Eagles game in the car I probably won't be listening to WYSP again in the near future.

As I said, I recent got XM satellite radio. With that I can listen to Opie and Anthony (as well as full broadcasts of Coast to Coast - damn you 1210 AM) so I don't see much use any longer in WYSP. And besides, there's so much programming I'd rather listen to on the XM, I don't need many terrestrial stations that much anymore.

Shame. Good luck, WYSP.


.

Old People Radio

I'm a huge talk radio fan. And being from the Philadelphia area where the genre's heyday is firmly in the past buried under a tombstone marked "WWDB," good talk radio is sometimes hard to find. One such place, until very recently, used to News Jersey 101.5 FM headquartered in Trenton, which for all intents and purposes is basically Philadelphia.

For many years the stars and major highlight of their talk line-up was the afternoon drive time team of Craig Carton and Ray Rossi, the Jersey Guys (pictured above). They could have easily been shuffled into a Howard Stern or an Opie & Anthony category except for their active attitude toward happenings in New Jersey. They were not just entertaining and funny, they were politically and socially active as well.

The duo had a good camaraderie, if you could call it that. Ray was older, more sensible, and a radio veteran. Craig on the other hand was a cutting edge shock-jock type whose grasp of pop culture was unrivalled. Where normally such a mix would be like oil and water, here it worked.

Now Craig has unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) have left NJ 101.5 to replace Don Imus at WFAN in New York. NJ 101.5 has decided to retool the Jersey Guys show and replace carton with someone named Casey Bartholomew. The show is now described thus: "Casey Bartholomew and Ray Rossi: The best thing Jersey has to offer...next to the tomato. A couple of 'Good Fellas' in a Jersey state of mind. Gen-X meets the Baby Boomer. They call it like it is, no holds barred. Find out why the most listened to FM Talk Show in the country is on New Jersey 101.5."

"Gen-X meets the Baby Boomer," eh? Doesn't that imply a younger or younger-ish slant? Maybe. Maybe not. My first exposure to Casey had him mentioning his age, and growing up fantasizing about Rebecca DeMornay in Risky Business. I thought, okay, he's my age. Not quite.

The topic of that hour was Elvis and other dead singers. This is not a usual Jersey Guys topic, this is something more suited to the frivolous Frick and Frack show that runs at noontime. Fluff, nothing but fluff. The Jersey Guys that I know tackle stuff like illegal immigrants and corrupt state troopers.

Casey Bartholomew after taking the prerequisite calls about Elvis, commenting on how much he liked and respected him, he took a call from a caller who discussed Kurt Cobain. Casey confronted the caller questioning what was so great about Cobain, referring to the legend as a loser.

This is a Gen-X-er??? Whether you liked Kurt Cobain or not, it can't be denied that the man changed the entire landscape of music in the early 1990s. This idiot wouldn't even acknowledge that. As a matter of fact, he came off sounding a lot more like a Dominic Quinn or that old man Gearhart idiot NJ 101.5 has given mornings to than anyone even close to my age. And this is a representative of Generation X?

Well, that's it for me and NJ 101.5 I think. I hate the old man in the morning, I have to be in the mood for the fluff at noon, and I just can't stand Michele Pilenza, a lifestyle and relationship host that apparently thinks only good-looking people should be able to date (I swear, she's said it more than once!), I think I'm officially an ex-listener. Which is a shame, because I actually do like the overnight guy Tommy G., too bad WYSP has better talk programming on at the same time.

Bye bye, News Jersey. Hope you get enough old people listening to keep your ratings now.

Borat

I owe Steve Friedman a huge apology. He's Mr. Movie, heard locally on talk radio in the Philadelphia area for nearly twenty-five years (currently at WPHT 1210 AM Saturday nights), is one of the foremost experts on film and cinema ever - he knows almost as much as I do. ;-)

We frequently disagree, but as has been said a million times, Opinions are like a-holes, everyone has one. This past Saturday night Steve went on about how Stranger Than Fiction wasn't a great flick and how he didn't like it. I thought it was brilliant, nothing new, as I said, we frequently disagree. He then followed that opinion up with his thoughts on Borat, which he said he walked out on. That's a pretty forceful statement coming from any film critic, something is so awful that they had to walk out of it.

Upon hearing that I immediately relayed the info to my bride and said, "We MUST see Borat, if Steve hated it that much, it's probably good!" Additionally, there was also all that hype about it being the funniest movie ever made, and of course, it was also number one at the box office (not that that is a big deal, hell, Wedding Crashers was number one at one point). So we went to see Borat.

I sincerely apologize, Steve. This is one where we agree completely. I wanted out of the theatre almost at once. I did not, however, walk out, though I wish I did.

Borat is a racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic piece of shit.

DO NOT SEE THIS FILM.