Thursday, January 28, 2016

1.28.16 Bee-otches of the Day: The Federal Government


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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Name: the federal government
Age: 240
Occupation: the people who rule over us
Last Seen: Washington, DC
Bee-otched For: ruining radio

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The 1950s were simpler times, weren't they?

Back then, there was no internet. Cable TV was virtually non-existent. The only way we could watch a movie was at an actual theatre or at home on TV. And if you wanted to watch the news, the only time to do so was at 6 p.m.

However, there was that pesky issue known as Civil Rights. Down South, many TV stations refused to air news stories on the subject, mainly because they all believed in keeping things segregated. Then, a man named Everett Parker, who was the head of the United Church of Christ's Office of Communication stepped in and banded his churches together to protest the rule. In 1959, the Federal Court ruled that the airwaves were public property and must all follow the Fairness Doctrine.

In 1959, companies were only allowed one AM, one FM and one TV station per market. Newspaper owners were not allowed to own TV or radio stations unless they had a waiver that allowed them to do so. This allowed cities to have several voices and opinions on the local news media. And thanks to the Fairness Doctrine, radio and TV stations had to present opinions from both sides. Case in point: skip to 12:38 into this legendary film about WJR in Detroit from 1968.

Thanks to the Fairness Doctrine, not one, but TWO TV stations had their licenses revoked by the FCC for not allowing counterpoints. The most-notorious case involved WLBT-TV in Jackson, MS, the town's NBC affiliate. In 1971, the FCC yanked the license away from former owner Lamar Life Insurance Company for pretending that black people simply did not exist. When NBC ran a news story about Civil Rights, the station would fade to black followed by a caption reading "problem with network lines" on the screen. A non-profit group led by white and black individuals took control of the station, finally allowing people of color to have a voice. Longtime CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston started his broadcasting career at WLBT shortly after the takeover.

Another station, WJIM-TV in Lansing here in Michigan also had its license revoked in 1981, but was reinstated by appeal because several politicians claimed that they were refused by owner Harold Gross to appear on his station. However, the revocation was reversed although Gross ended up selling the station in 1984. The station is now WLNS and remains Lansing's CBS affiliate.

Thanks to the Fairness Doctrine, TV and radio stations had to present both sides and some of the thanks went to Parker, who died last year at the age of 102. But thanks to a certain president with six letters in his first name, six letters in his second name and another six letters in his last name, the Doctrine went bye-bye.

That man, of course, was Ronald Wilson Reagan.

In 1987, the FCC eliminated the Fairness Doctrine and its language was formally removed in 2011. Because of the FD's removal, radio and TV stations no longer needed to be purely fair and balanced. A year later, a fat moron from Missouri named Rush Limbaugh made his debut on WABC Radio out of New York and was syndicated cross country. Soon, Rush clones such as G. Gordon Liddy, Sean Hannity, Michael "Savage" Weiner and others came out of the woodwork while liberal talkers seemed to be a pipe dream.

But the shit was only going to hit the fan even harder.

In 1996, the US government on both sides of the aisle gave us the Telecommunications Act, which allowed broadcasters to own more radio and TV stations. Now, a single entity could now own two AM, seven FM and if the market is big enough, two TV stations. Also, the amount of radio and TV stations owned by one company was now relaxed.

Telecom '96 did have some good, especially in northern Michigan since before it was passed, every radio company wanted to play either country or old people music. By 1998, there was The Zone, which played crappy Lilith Fair music in the beginning, but started to rock in late 2000 (through some changes, it's now Rock 105). It also allowed CBS to buy more stations, which meant more stations that carried Howard Stern.

But sadly in this post-1.9.06 era and 20 years after Telecom 96's passing, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, radio is one giant sack of shit. Look at Grand Rapids: about 95% of all the radio stations here are either owned by Cumulus (stock price: 21 cents), iHeartMedia/Clear Channel (a buck) and Townsquare ($8.90 per share). Pandora is at $9.55, Sirius/XM is at $3.55 and so on. There's a lot of choices out there for radio, and the competition is tough.

You see, big, corporate radio doesn't care about anybody anymore. It's a business, and it's mostly run by beancounters. Look at the now-defunct Citadel Broadcasting and its Grand Rapids head, Matt Hanlon. Like I mentioned yesterday, he did everything from demote Howard Stern from 50,000-watt WKLQ to 1,000-watt WBBL to fire popular jocks to run a bunch of stations that underperformed. End result: Citadel became a penny stock and ended up getting swallowed by Cumulus (which is pretty near penny stock status themselves). Hanlon lost his job at Citadel, ended up selling ads at Townsquare, lost his job after he got caught drunk driving and is now out of radio altogether. Will he return to the medium? We pray not.

It doesn't shock us that Cumulus stock is at 21 cents. Look at what they did to WHNN in Bay City! Top-rated classic hits/oldies station that was recently replaced by AC. Their Facebook page became a sea of complaints with hardly any praise for the new format. It's all too common in radio: a popular station getting replaced with low-rated shit with their manager claiming that "we needed to go in a new direction". And that direction ain't the one they wanted.

Same goes with television. Look at northern Michigan: in the 2000s, the owners of NBC WPBN went into an Shared Services Agreement with ABC WGTU while the same thing happened with CBS WWTV and Fox WFQX. Many in the broadcast biz claim that SSAs are basically the owner of one station creating a fake company to "own" their sisters. Legally, there can only be one station owner for each station in northern Michigan since technically, there's only four full-power commercial stations. The end result is that while both WGTU and WFQX - two stations that pre-merger had little-to-no news departments - now share the services with WPBN and WWTV, the long-time market leaders. However, it means a bigger lack of syndicated programming in the region since both WWTV and WFQX air a great deal of paid programming. Case in point: look at what each station airs daily at 10 a.m.: WPBN airs the fourth hour of Today with the always-drunk Kathie Lee and Hoda, WWTV airs an hour of infomercials, WGTU airs the now-cancelled Oprah clone Meredeth Viera and WFQX sadly airs The 700 Club.

Right now, WFQX is only one of two TV stations in Michigan - the other being Detroit's WMYD - that air Pat Robertson's daily lie-fest. Even worse, the station will be the sole station on Sunday in the whole state airing three hours of their beg-a-thon. I remembered back many years ago, WGTU aired the beg-a-thonand pre-empted a Sunday loaded sports programming on ABC. One person even complained to the Record-Eagle newspaper about their programming decisions.

Look, it's a shame that people up in my old homeland are faced with a media that thinks little of them. Hell, look at WTCM and their recent decision to eliminate their popular live and local afternoon talk show and replace it with Sean Hannity. They claimed that it was all about money, but the thing was, the live and local show outperformed Hannity in the ratings.

You see, there's a reason why radio and TV stations' stock prices suck: THEY JUST DON'T CARE. Personally, if a broadcaster wants to make money, they need to look at their roots. People come first, but thanks to the Fairness Doctrine's removal and Telecom '96, that's no longer a reality. No people = no ratings. No ratings should = no ad revenues. If any radio company came to my business to try to sell ads, I would tell them "show me the ratings". If they come up with horseshit, out they go.

We now have seen the state of radio after 20 years. Now, we'll look forward to the next ten.
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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

1.27.16 Bee-otch of the Day: Matt Hanlon


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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Name: Matt Hanlon
Age: 52
Occupation: the asshole who killed KLQ
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: trying to make a comeback

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He's baaaaaack.....

All I can say is thank Jesus this asshole's no longer in radio.

On Monday, former west Michigan radio exec Matt Hanlon appeared on WZZM 13's My West program to talk about his work with Guiding Light Mission, an organization that helps the homeless find jobs. Apparently, he looked like he came off the streets himself.

All this from a dumbass who damn near killed a couple three years ago with his Range Rover while driving drunk.

In his Chamber of Commercey interview with Catherine Behrendt - who looks like she could donate a few food items to the homeless herself - he explains how the organization works. Now, he's trying to look like somebody who is trying to help the poor souls of west Michigan, but remember folks, as president of Citadel Broadcasting here in Michigan, he forced his jocks to sign non-compete contracts. If that jock got canned, they could not work for another station in the market. Rich Michaels was a prime example of Hanlon's bullshit; he ended up moving to Florida because he was not allowed to work in his home market of Lansing after being fired by Hanlon during the holidays several years ago.

Of course, when Hanlon ran the show at Citadel Grand Rapids, he demoted the top-rated Howard Stern Show to WBBL (then at 1340 AM), causing WKLQ to lose 75% of its audience, he fucked over oldies fans by killing WODJ, he fired countless talented people and kept or promoted folks with no real talent, like "Huge" Bill Simonson and he ended up killing KLQ altogether simply because they ended up being WGRD's bitch. Of course when Citadel merged with Cumulus, Hanlon got the boot and he deserved it.

Hanlon ended up going to Townsquare as a salesman but got canned in 2012 because of the aforementioned car accident on the East Beltline. Now, he's trying to tiptoe his way back into real life again by working for the non-profit. Personally, I should be applauding him for trying to be a good person in real life. But seriously, he's caused a lot of damage to a lot of people and I hardly doubt if many of them would ever forgive him for what he did at Citadel. It makes me want to simply donate to the homeless person directly instead of donating to Guiding Light since a part of my money would go into the hands of this jackass, even if the bum uses it to kill himself slowly with booze.

Every little bit helps, but when that man is Hanlon, I would be running for zee hills.
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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

1.26.16 Bee-otches of the Day: David Daleiden and Sandra Merrit


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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Names: David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt
Ages: 26, ??
Occupations: anti-abortion advocates
Last Seen: Houston, TX
Bee-otched For: getting busted for lying

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There's a lesson we all must learn: don't fuck with women's rights.

Last year, an anti-abortion group called the Center of Medical Progress created a video where a person was asking a representative for Planned Parenthood various questions, such as what happens to the fetuses when they're aborted. It appears that the woman was saying that they sell parts of the fetus, which is very illegal.

Since the video was released, there was massive outrage against PP with protests and politicians such as now-ousted Michigan rep Cindy Gamrat wanting to eliminate their funding. There was even a mass shooting in front of a PP clinic in Colorado that killed a policeman. But now, the duo behind the video has been indicted.

A court in Houston has indicted David Daleiden for felony charge of tampering with a government record and a misdemeanor for purchasing human organs. His accomplice, Sandra Merritt, was charged with tampering with a government record.

The two worked for the CMP, which made the videos which were designed to expose PP as a bunch of baby killers. The case requested by Texas governor Dan Patrick who is an opponent against abortion and PP. According to Harris County District Attorney Devin Anderson, the case was quite thorough and found no wrongdoing on PP's part.

Look. Abortion is 100% legal in America. These assholes who wasted their time making these videos are nothing more than a bunch of liars who made people think that they're holier than thou when in fact, all it did was create one giant shitstorm. David and Sandra got what they deserved and now, they could be seeing steel.

Planned Parenthood needs to be awarded for what they do, not the opposite. Only 3% of what they do is abortion-related. The rest includes sex ed, cancer screening, birth control and scores of others. This group needs our support, not the other way around.

But when people support a bunch of liars, remember, they're the ones going to jail.
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Monday, January 25, 2016

1.25.16 Bee-otch of the Day: Peyton Manning


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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Name: Peyton Manning
Age: 39
Occupation: Denver Broncos quarterback
Last Seen: Denver
Bee-otched For: going to the Super Bowl again

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Well, if there's any good news to share, it's that Tom Brady and his deflated balls won't be going to the Super Bowl this year.

On Sunday, they were defeated by the Denver Broncos 20-18. They will face the Carolina Panthers on Super Bowl Sunday, February 7 in San Francisco.

While it's cool that a cheater like Brady will be enjoying the Super Bowl in the privy of his own home with Gisele on his lap, it's a shame that Manning's image has been spoiled by one man: Papa John.

Yep, Manning is good pals with Papa John Schnatter, the founder of the pizza chain that bares his name. It's also worth noting that Manning himself owns several Papa John's in Colorado. For those who don't remember, Papa John made headlines several years ago when he announced that he was cutting his employees' hours claiming that it was due to Obamacare. Yet, John lives in a $30 million mansion in Kentucky.

Manning himself identifies himself as a conservative Christian who gives a lot of *ahem* dough to the Republicans.

Ya know, I used to love Papa John's, but my love ended because of John's teabagger policies. Plus, I read that their dough is frozen. I prefer Little Caesars or Jet's to Papa John's any day, pepper inside the box or not. Besides, the Ilitches support Michigan. I have read that Jet's does support the Republicans, but their donations aren't that much.

Any team that has "Down With the Sickness" as their entrance theme deserves a lot of respect.

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Thursday, January 21, 2016

1.21.16 Bee-och of the Day: Sarah Palin


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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Name: Sarah Palin
Age: 51
Occupation: failed politician
Last Seen: Oklahoma
Bee-otched For: proving that she's fucking stupid

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I have a prediction: a Democrat will win the 2016 election.

That, of course, is because Donald Trump has been given the kiss of death.

On Tuesday, the mega-billionaire was endorsed by former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin for his presidential run. She's joined Trump on his campaign for the presidency, and already, she's trashing Obama.

In a campaign stop in Oklahoma yesterday, Palin claimed that her son, Track (God, what a dumb name for a kid) contracted Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder while serving in Iraq. He was arrested this week for beating up his girlfriend and Palin claimed that Obama is at fault for the lack of care our soldiers have received after fighting Dubya's fake wars.

“I guess it’s kind of an elephant in the room, because my own family -- going through what we’re going through today,” said the former Wasilla, AK mayor. “My son, a combat vet, having served in a Stryker Brigade for you all, America in the war zone; but my son, like so many others, they came back a bit different.”

Ah, yes, good 'ol Sarah Palin, the woman who was the former mayor of the meth capital of America and only served two years as governor of Alaska simply because she sucked at it. Let's not forget that as governor, she outlawed sex ed in schools, replacing it with abstinence-only. Well, her plan didn't work because her bitch ass ho of a daughter, Bristol now has not one, but TWO kids outside of wedlock.

Now, she's blaming our PRESIDENT for her son's stupidity? Look, I feel bad for anybody with PTSD, but, listen very, very carefully... THERE'S NO EXCUSE TO HIT A WOMAN, PERIOD. I have zero sympathy for anybody who puts their hands on a woman. Chris Brown, Charlie Sheen, Mike Tyson and now, Track Palin. It's sad that here I am, with zero girlfriend and I've NEVER beaten up a woman and here's this douche, smacking around a poor woman while he was drunk. Gotta love modern life, I guess.

You know, I wonder when Sarah and her family will disappear from the face of the earth. A shitty mom with no priorities in life and kids who are total assholes. They need to go back to Alaska and do what they do best: smell moose farts.

Oh, and say hi to Russia for us!

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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

1.20.16 Bee-otch of the Day: Rick Snyder


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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Name: Rick Snyder
Age: 58
Occupation: The Fred Rogers of Michigan politics... ONLY MORE SINISTER
Last Seen: Lansing, MI
Bee-otched For: another craptastic State of the State

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Ladies and gents, I missed the State of the State Address.

And guess what? The sun rose today and it will set at the end of the day.

Instead of hearing Governor Snyder say the same old shit over and over, I decided to watch Family Feud last night because, well, you can learn a lot more from Steve Harvey, even though he fucked up the Miss Universe pageant than from an asshole who willingly caused the people of Flint to get sick.

Watching the news before the speech however, showed a cattle call of protesters calling for Snyder's resignation. People are fed up with his pathetic leadership and it shows with a pissed-off middle class and poor people seeing their elected officials get demoted as Snyder's band of EFM Nazis take over their cities.

I did, however, catch the Democratic response to Snyder's borefest from Auburn Hills Rep. Tim Greimel, and the dude is a far better politician than Snyder by too many miles. He's calling for transparency in the state government since the state, along with Massachusetts are the only two in the nation that protects their governors from the Freedom of Information Act, which means that Snyder's emails regarding the Flint water crisis that could incriminate him will not be made public. Griemel also suggested that Michigan improve the way we handle college debt.

You know, I am waiting and hoping that somebody will step up and order Snyder from his post. I'm tired of him crying that we need to find a way to solve Flint's water crisis. While he's doing that, children will probably develop health issues over the years while people are losing their hot water heaters because of all the lead. It makes me proud that I live in a city that puts fluoride in the water supply instead.

Rick Snyder: maybe instead of comparing him to Mr. Rogers, we oughta compare him to Laurel and Hardy rolled up into one. After all, it's another fine mess he got us all into.  
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Tuesday, January 19, 2016

1.19.16 Bee-otch of the Day: The Grim Reaper

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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Name: The Grim Reaper
Age: ageless
Occupation: the cause of death
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: killing a ton of rock stars as of late

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At the beginning of December, I was noticing that not many big named rock stars had died. Just B.B. King and that was it.

Man, I wish I kept my big mind shut.

Shortly after December began, Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver lead singer Scott Weiland died from an overdose at 48. Then after Christmas, Lemmy from Motorhead died from cancer days after his 70th birthday. Last week, David Bowie also died of cancer just days after his 69th birthday and the release of his "Blackstar" album, which just debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts -- his first #1 album in his 50+ year career.

Now, the old saying was that "death comes in threes". Sadly, that's not the case as of late.

Last night, came another rock death: Glenn Frey of the legendary 1970s rock band The Eagles, who died of pneumonia, rheumatoid arthritis and ulcers at the age of 67. Alongside his work with The Eagles, the Detroit-born Frey had a successful solo career with multiple 1980s hits such as "The Heat is On" (seen above), "You Belong to the City" and "Smugglers Blues".

But in the words of many an infomercial, "but wait! That's not all!"

Speaking of Bowie, Mott the Hoople drummer Dale Griffin died on Sunday at the age of 67 from Alzheimer's. In 1972, the glam rockers scored their only top 40 hit here in the U.S. with the Bowie-penned "All the Young Dudes". On Saturday, pancreatic cancer took the life of Gary Loizzo, best-known as the lead singer of another one-hit-wonder, The American Breed, who in 1968 peaked at #5 with "Bend Me, Shape Me". He became a successful record producer, working with REO Speedwagon and Styx.

In just two months, the world of rock lost not one, not two, but six (!!!) stars. And January isn't over yet. Amazingly, it was only Weiland who died from drug use. Of course, Lemmy drank a bottle of Jack daily until a few years ago, but I wouldn't be too surprised if his cancer wasn't totally drug-related.

Sometimes, I wonder if hell REALLY is on earth. Many of the aforementioned musicians were very talented and had many fans around the world. Yet, we're stuck with talentless pricks like Justin Bieber and Chris Brown making a lot of the music nowadays. I know, it's not nice to wish death on anybody, but if you make headlines by beating up your girlfriend or simply acting drunk and stupid, well, you have some work to do.

But the good news is that Rock 'N Roll Heaven is sounding better than ever.
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Monday, January 18, 2016

1.18.16 Bee-otch of the Day: Cumulus


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Name: Cumulus Media
Age: 19
Occupation: media giant
Last Seen: Atlanta, GA
Bee-otched For: proving why their stock is only a quarter

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Just what the Flint and Tri-Cities wanted: more problems.

For years, Flint had been in a downward spiral thanks to the downfall of the auto industry and now, its water problem. Now, the area has no oldies station.

On Friday afternoon at 5 p.m., 96.1 WHNN dropped its 26-year-old oldies/classic hits format for adult contemporary as "My 96.1". The station's morning hosts, Johnny Burke and Blondie were let go, although the rest of the station's jocks were retained.

WHNN was actually doing well in the ratings; in the last Nielsen book released for the region, the station was at a 7.5 (although it's hard to tell how the station was REALLY doing vs. other stations since they don't subscribe to the service). The Tri Cities market already has two other AC stations: MacDonald Broadcasting's WSAM 1400/104.1 The Bay and Digity's Mix 106.3 WGER. Needless to say, soccer moms in the region are overserved. But now, where are people going to get their classics from the 60s, 70s and 80s? The area is quite diverse when it comes to formats with several rock, country, CHR and urban formats, but now with classic hits out of the equation, it's proof that corporate radio simply don't care.

Since WHNN's dumping of oldies, their Facebook posts have been like venom. Lots of listeners claiming that they'll never listen to the station ever again and a few claiming that 96.1 is no longer on their presets.

Michigan has had a long history of failing new AC stations, especially in the past 15 years. Lansing's My 92.1 - which replaced alternative 92.1 The Edge in 2003 - was a prime example. The station only lasted six months. 106.7 WSRT in northern Michigan was another example; it replaced WKPK 106.7 The Peak in the early 2000s. The ratings were so bad that their Programming Director sent in fake Arbitron diaries to make it look like the station was a success. In the end, he lost his job and WSRT ended up flipping to talk and its current format, ESPN.

But let's remember who owns WHNN: Cumulus. Yep! The same company that created controversy when they dropped The Dixie Chicks from all their stations over Natalie Maines' outburst against George W. Bush. The same company that bought up a bunch of Howard Stern affiliates and replaced his show with the unpopular Lex and Terry. The same company that bought up a religious station in Newark, causing rock fans in the New York region to pray and hope for a new rock station in the area, only to put a crappy country station on that frequency that has never been above a two share in the ratings.

The same company that once traded over $20 a share on the New York Stock Exchange about ten years ago, but is now trading for a mere quarter.

Folks, I remembered what happened here in Grand Rapids in 2004 when our oldies station, 107.3 WODJ was replaced with WKLQ's move to that frequency from 94.5, which became WTNR/Thunder 94.5 (now another *sigh* Nash station). A few days later, 98.7 WFGR flipped to Oldies and the people of GR were nothing short of happy. Sadly, WFGR is now a 70s/80s classic hits station with meh ratings, but at least there's real 1955-75 oldies on WGVU 1480.

As for WHNN, I predict that somebody else in the region will flip their station to oldies while WHNN will end up like New Coke. I'm 34 years old and I grew up with The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Elvis and other artists from rock's early days that many stations are too scared to play anymore simply because "the demographic is too old". Personally, I'd rather listen to Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly over Katy Perry or cokehead Bruno Mars. I hope that Johnny Burke will also get back on his feet.

And WHY do I listen to internet radio more often these days?
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Thursday, January 14, 2016

1.14.16 Bee-otch of the Day: Rick Snyder


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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Name: Rick Snyder
Age: 57
Occupation: the Fred Rogers of Michigan politics... ONLY MORE SINISTER! (source: Darren Gibson)
Last Seen: Lansing, MI
Bee-otched For: getting closer to the slammer

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Without a doubt, Rick Snyder is the worst governor in America right now.

Of course, we've been spanking him for the fact that the Emergency Fund Manager he hired for Flint decided to switch the town's water supply from Lake Huron to the polluted Flint River, causing large amounts of lead to end up in the town's water supply.

Now, it looks like the governor's stupidity is already having its effect on some people because they're dead.

Cases of Legionnaire's Disease have now quadrupled in the Flint area since 2014 when the city switched to the new water system. While medical experts are claiming that the cases couldn't be directly blamed at the Flint water system, most of the cases were linked to medical care facilities that may have used Flint River water.

Meanwhile, the National Guard is now aiding Flint residents with bottled water. The water is OK to bathe in, but not drink.

Legionnaire's Disease is a severe form of Pneumonia that can be fatal. It is caused by a bacteria found in all kinds of water, even drinking water. Most cases are rare, but since there's probably all sorts of creepy crawlers in Flint River's water, don't be surprised if the situation there ends up being dire.

Then, there's another situation brewing in Detroit where Snyder's EFM program is having a negative effect on schools.

Teachers are now staging "sickouts" in protest because Detroit's schools are now crumbling. Some schools are infested with black mold while others have hardly any heat and mice running down the halls. Mayor Mike Duggan agrees that the schools need repairs, but it might not happen thanks to the fact that the EFM initiative cut 40% of that funding. Also, math and reading scores have tumbled since Snyder took over the schools. Fourth grade teacher Pam Namyslowski is even making the rounds on the internet with a letter she wrote to EFM Darnell Earley talking about the deplorable conditions her school has and the pain her students are feeling.  

You know, I wish that Snyder was fired as our governor NOW. He puts money higher than people and the people of Detroit and Flint are the ones paying the price. Personally, he needs to rot in jail since he's abusing EVERYBODY. He's the modern day Hitler by hiring people to take over city governments only to poison people and force kids to learn in dilapidated environments. And yet, his biggest supporters, the Devoses are living comfortably in their mansion.

This story reminds me of my mother and her now-former stepchildren when they lived in northern Michigan in the late 90s. When she and her now-ex-husband got full custody of his kids, they had a dilemma. Despite having a Bellaire address, they actually were in the Mancelona school district. Mancelona - or as the local call it, "Manceltucky" for obvious reasons - was a town notorious for being the Detroit of the north. Lots of drugs, pregnant teens and low-lifes, plus a high school that was partially condemned. As a result, my mother was driving my ex-stepsiblings to school every morning.

You see, my ex-steps were lucky. They got to go to a nice school despite being in a school district with bad schools and still-after-all-these-years, low test scores. Detroit kids aren't so lucky and I feel bad for them. Education should definitely be a top priority for everybody, not the other way around. Same thing as water.

But thanks to Snyder, if you live in Flint or Detroit, it's not a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
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Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com!

Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

1.13.16 Bee-otch of the Day: terrestrial radio


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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Name: terrestrial radio
Age: 96
Occupation: supposed entertainers and informers of the public
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: barely surviving

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It was 10 years ago Saturday that radio changed for the better.

Howard Stern made his debut on Sirius Satellite Radio finally bringing the uncensored version of his popular radio show to the masses. For $13 per month, you could enjoy his comedy bits, interviews and such without Tom Chiusano ruining all the fun.

It was also a homecoming for Stern fans angry over what Matt Hanlon and Citadel did to the show from 2002-2005 when corporate canned the show on all their stations simply because Howard was talking too much about his impending move. Yet, his old station in Grand Rapids, WKLQ eventually picked up rivals Opie and Anthony but canned them after two years due to poor ratings.

It was also good news for those in northern Michigan tired of chuckle hit morning shows like Bob and Tom or some local station like KLT who would constantly change their morning shows every three years, at least until Stern clone Omelette came to town.

So, how has radio fared in the past decade? Has it gotten worse? Better? Hmmm, well, judging by this article's headline, well, the answer is HELL NO.

Stern's ten-year anniversary came one day after the 75th birthday of WTCM in Traverse City, my old hometown's oldest radio station. True, people should be happy that it's still locally owned by the same family that started it 3/4 of a century ago, but it was also just a few days after the station canned their live and local afternoon show over costs. Now, Sean Hannity airs in its spot. Station management claimed that with this being an election year, it was important to have live analysis on the air, but the thing is, is that Hannity is a one-sided neocon who is simply a carbon copy of Rush and his other minions. When The Afternoon Drive aired on WTCM, it had double the ratings numbers Hannity had his first time around from 3-6 pm on the station.

Thankfully, Norm Jones - one of the AD's hosts - is still at the station, albeit on swing duties. But I did hear a rumor that Northern Star Broadcasting, the owners of Classic Rock The Bear, Rock 105, Big Country 102.9 and EZ 95-5/106-3 interviewed him recently about the soon-to-be vacated morning show/PD post at Rock 105. Yep, Cartman is leaving the station soon and headed over to Green Bay. I also noticed recently, too that Rock 105 no longer uses Westwood One's "Rock 2.0" format and everything is all locally programmed as far as I know. So, could this be the end of Rock 105? God only knows, but if that were to be, I would be happy that much of northern Michigan now has 4G LTE so I can listen to better-programmed rock radio in my travels.

I think it's funny that NSB canned Free Beer and Hot Wings on what was then Real Rock 105/95-5 and slapped Cartman back on mornings. Real Rock had DOUBLE the ratings The Bear had with dopey Bob and Tom in the morning. Now, Bob is retired and longtime Robin Quivers clone Kristi Lee announced that she's leaving the show, too. The only thing keeping Tom on the air is that his wife is pregnant, so she will now have two sets of diapers to change: the baby's and Tom's.

If that piece of shit show steals that last bit and adds on fake laughter to it, I will sue.

Let's face it: Bob and Tom is a sinking ship while FB&HW will last at least maybe another 20 years. Then again, all of radio is a sinking ship. Northern Michigan has five companies running about 90% of all the radio up there while Grand Rapids has three. Yet, Cumulus stock closed yesterday at 29 cents per share, iHeartMedia (Clear Channel) was at 84 cents (it was over a buck a few weeks ago) and Townsquare (FB&HW's owners) is doing much better at $10.59.

However, nether Midwestern, MacDonald-Garber, Northern Broadcast, NSB nor that weird-ass Texan are publicly traded. But, I have heard that one group owner is having trouble with payroll (and it ain't the Texan). It's also worth noting that northern Michigan does have a few radio stations - three in all - that are currently off the air because of money problems.

Maybe northern Michigan's radio Titanic is retribution for the fact that back when Howard Stern was at his peak in terrestrial radio, they sure as hell wouldn't want to air his show. They felt that Bob and Tom were edgy enough as-is. But now, there's the aforementioned Omelette on KLT with his knock off of The Wack Pack known as The Misfits (named after The Island of Misfit Toys from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", of course).

ALL of terrestrial radio needs to wake up. Why in the hell are radio companies knocking off younger-skewing formats such as Active Rock (and just think, there's no new rock station at all in New York City) and at the same time killing Oldies, crying "we don't want the 65 and over crowd"? Look, as a 34-year-old male, I am the future of radio. They need to work even harder to keep me listening, not the other way around. But nothing's working. Even with a kick-ass station like WGRD here in Grand Rapids, I'll admit that the only time I listen to the station AT ALL on any given day is when my alarm goes off in the morning. For the rest of the day, it's the internet or Southpaws on WPRR 1680 Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10a-noon.

Now, will radio survive another five years, or will there be silent stations everywhere? Just look at northern Michigan.
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Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome!

Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com!

Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

1.12.16 Hero of the Day: David Bowie


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!
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A SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!







Name: David Bowie
Age: was 69
Occupation: music legend
Last Seen: in the great beyond
Awarded For: helping to change music for the better forever 

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Last week, David Bowie released the video for his song "Lazarus", which featured him acting like the Biblical character rising from the dead. The song's beginning lyrics were "look at me, I'm in Heaven".

Little did people know when it was released Thursday that it was his farewell to his fans.

It was a shock to me yesterday morning when I checked my phone and a blurb from my AP News app said that David Bowie had indeed passed away at the age of 69 from an 18-month battle with cancer. When he found out about his diagnosis, he kept it a closely-guarded secret.

Bowie even appeared in some pictures taken a month ago during the opening of his stage play "Lazarus", appearing to be in good spirits.

Born David Jones, he adopted the David Bowie persona in the late 60s to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees. Of course, the Bowie part of the name came from frontiersman Jim Bowie, known for dying in the Battle of the Alamo 180 years ago. However, his name was pronounced "booey" as in "Baba Booey". His first album in 1967, self-titled wasn't a huge hit, but his next one two years later - also self-titled - produced his first major hit, "Space Oddity", which wasn't a hit here in America until three years later.

Throughout his career, Bowie was a pure chameleon, changing from 1960s baroque pop to 1970s glam rock as Ziggy Stardust. Then, as the Thin White Duke, he made himself funkier, especially with "Fame", one of two #1 hits for Bowie in America. The song's success even got him a spot on Soul Train, a rarity for any white artist. In the 80s, it was new wave with tunes such as "Fashion" and "Ashes to Ashes", a sequel to "Space Oddity". In 1983, he scored another #1 with "Let's Dance", which featured the guitar stylings of a young blues musician named Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Bowie kept reinventing himself. His 1997 album "Earthling" produced one of the finest examples of drum-and-bass electronica, "Little Wonder", and "I'm Afraid of Americans", whose production from Trent Reznor helped make that particular tune his highest-charting in the whole decade. Unlike many artists his age, Bowie never retired; he kept making album after album, reinventing himself on each one.

Yes, David had his embarrassments, like his and Mick Jagger's dorky rendition of "Dancing in the Streets". But he was legit til the end. Oh yes, he was an accomplished actor; his rendition of the Goblin King from 1985's "Labyrinth" helped make that film a cult classic.

I have a somewhat sizable record collection with a few albums from the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Black Sabbath (I have a well-worn copy of "Paranoid") and even Eagles' "Hotel California", all mostly hand-me-downs from my parents. Sadly, even though my mother's Facebook avatar is that of Bowie as the Goblin King (she loves "Labyrinth", BTW), the only Bowie she had was an old 45 of "1984" b/w "Queen Bitch".

It's hard to measure how much influence Bowie had on modern music since it's so surmountable. Another rock legend, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana covered "The Man Who Sold The World". German pop star Peter Schilling had a hit in 1983 with his own retelling of "Space Oddity" called "Major Tom". Bowie was even mentioned in synth-poppers Kraftwerk's 1977 classic "Trans-Europe Express". The amount of artists Bowie influenced over the years are too many to mention.

In all fairness, he didn't do too bad for somebody whose first hit single was a duet with a sped-up tape recorder.

In the end, we don't have David Bowie anymore, but we'll always have the music and the influence. See you soon, spaceman.
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Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome!

Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com!

Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!