D.T. Goes Off: KGTV 10, Union-Tribune and FM 94/9 (June 7, 2006)

First case: KGTV. Now, I don't watch their idea of "news" on their channel anymore since my top stories of the day never get covered by the local TV stations anyway, and in the case of the early election results at 8:00pm, the minute they close, I don't give a rat's ass about the election results until two-three hours after the polls close and some real numbers show up in significant numbers, and in most cases at this time anyway, you just cannot call a race with just 0.001 percent of the precincts cast.

Also, a big screw-you to KGTV 10 for messing up my 8:30pm-9:00pm VCR recording of last night's "Rodney" on ABC in favor of covering a still-developing story live instead of waiting until 10 or 11pm when many of the precincts have reported in with the poll numbers and there is enough election day data to decide who won what race. "Rodney" was one of the best shows of the year, but it was too bad that it got low ratings basically because, well, it appealled to my gender: men, more so than women. With "Rodney" cancelled, and ABC burning the remaining episodes in the summer, the local affilliates decide to treat some shows like mince meat and either bump them around, screwing up my VCR tape times (I was out at work and could not watch it live), or just plain not show it at all, either way, KGTV gets a big screw-you for messing with the only TV show I'm watching on their stupid broadcast TV channel in favor of presenting us with live coverage of a slow-moving developing story that I just have no interest in until about 11pm.

So, KGTV has done it again, forgetting to serve the public interest by overserving it with non-news coverage instead of waiting until some hours have lapsed and we have been entertained with real programming such as comedy or a movie from 8-10pm. Too bad KGTV hasn't learned how to learn how to butt-out if nothing important newswise is worth covering until later.

I can read the results in this morning's Union-Tribune where I don't have to sit through four hours of election coverage dreck and boring myself in the process. I have a life to live, and in the meantime, I'll be listening to XL Laugh Attack on XM 153 from out of Canada for the evening.

Next, we come to the Union-Tribune from San Diego. Once again, their top stories of the day for the most part don't coincide with mine, and as far as I'm concerned, they are not covering the most important story of the moment: The need for net neutrality. I've been posting some of the news exceprts about this very important piece of legislation that is currently being voted on in Congress at this page: http://www.davesfunstuff.com/041ar073.htm

...as well as links where readers can help and tell their reps to not let the big companies such as Time Warner (sucks) and AT&T (double-sucks) control the broadband pipes and restrict the free flow of information from non-affilliated websites or else the big media will get bigger (or is the Tribune one of the evil ones like Time Warner is?) while the smaller voices such as independent labels and competeting companies, unable to pay the bigger media for use of their broadband pipes, would simply have their websites load much more slowly. Is this what the Tribune wants?

Also to add insult, the Tribune continues to ignore the fact that there are more than just two political parties. In this case, and I quote from an article from Tuesday's U-T: "...it may take many hours or even days to determine Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's general election opponent."

Now, what's wrong with this statement? They left off the word Democrat. The way the paper published it, they're implying that there are only two political parties when there in fact some eight or so, including the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, and others. The paper just doesn't understand that by continuing to ignore the fact that there are more than just two political parties, the voters will be persuaded to vote either Republican or Democrat, and not give a single vote to any of the other parties, thinking that they won't be able to get enough votes to beat one of the two big-party candidates.

The voting playing field is level alright. At 7am when the polls open, all of the candidates start out with zero votes. With the current rule that you could only vote for one person per office, it discourages many people from voting for the candidates for the smaller parties, so they just don't bother to register and vote.

Here's a solution: allow people to vote for more than one candidate for office, with the one getting the most votes being declared the winner. That way, I can vote for a governor from the Democratic, Peace and Freedom, and Libertarian parties all at the same time and hope that one of them gets enough votes to win.

With the Union-Tribune continuing to live like it's the 1950s the way they're writing election coverage, it's a best bet that you should read about the political party races in media other than your local newspaper.

And finally, a big raspberry goes out to FM 94/9 and its music director whose name and initials I will withhold from publication because he is otherwise a good man, but what he said to a budding local artist, as repoted by his competetor at another local station that competes with his, Marco Collins, the music director of 91X.

This afternoon, Marco went off about Reeve Oliver and referred to his station's competetor as the one that's "about the music". Marco told us on the radio that he admired Reeve for standing up to the music director at his competeting station when he flatly told an incensed music director there that he is standing up to his principles and will play at the 91X X-Fest XII this Friday night. The music director at 94/9, fumed by the mere mention of 91X, told Reeve that if he plays at X-Fest, that he has the authroity to blackmail his records from getting any more airplay on FM 94/9. Reeve stood firm and refused to pull out of the 91X X-Fest concert.

First off, let me give Reeve Oliver a free website plug from my website:

http://www.reeveoliver.com/

And a free plug about his upcoming concert performance this June the 9th at the Coors Amphitheatre. He's going to be one of the acts at the 91X presented X-Fest XII, which also features guests The Cult, Dashboard Confessional, Franz Ferdinand, Panic! At the Disco, Echo and the Bunnymen, She Wants Revenge, Hard-Fi, The Sounds, OK Go, The Stranger's Six.

Now as a longtime webblogger, let me tell you that there are some elements that you should exclude from your radio war with a same-format competetor. The battle of 91X and FM 94/9 has been going on since 2002 when then-owners let a new program director to flip the format to an alternative-rock format to compete with 91X, which was then run into the ground by Clear Channel and its music director that I mentioned too many times in my lifetime was another twit who couldn't understand what the musical tastes of the alternative music fan in San Diego wanted to hear and what not to hear. That twit at 91X until he left in 2003 blackballed many acts according to dirt reporter Ken Leighton of the SD Reader in a few Blurt columns; that twit music director wouldn't even play a popular song in 2001 at the time by Afroman "Because I Got High," which got a lot of airplay on the now-defunct Premium 92.1 from out of the Escondido outland. By not playing what San Diego wanted to hear, alternative music fans switched from 91X to 92.1 en masse in the North County and whereever the 92.1 signal could be heard in the South County. The music director at 94/9 was the one who helped launch Premium in May of 2001, turning the twit at 91X on his deaf ear when sounds of Daft Punk and Radiohead started getting San Diego exposure, breaking the stranglehold that 91X had been holding on San Diego.

Back then, Premium began playing songs from the acts that were blackballed from 91X's twit music director, and in the fall of 2002, FM 94/9 came on with a city-grade signal and finished the job Premium started the year before.

Now, we zoom over to the summer of 2006, and this time, its the FM 94/9 music director that is threatening with blackballing acts that appear on a competeting radio staiton's concertfest, to him I say "Grow the F--k Up!" Oliver Reeve, or excuse me, Reeve Oliver, is just a pawn whose in the business of making money with its music. They're playing at 91X fest, a station that the 94/9 music director was once part of until the idiots at Jacor fired him because he could not beat a shift at 92.5 The Flash back in the spring of 1996, ten years ago! And he's still bitter about being fired from 91X? This station is no longer run by the same people that fired him back then. What's up with that? Why is that music director making threats on the artists that are choosing to promote themselves on another radio station?

Let me tell you a few things, mister FM 94/9 music director. First off, your station's motto is "it's about the music," so keep your politics out of the artists that you play. Second off, your station's ratings are in the toilet with ratings below a two, about as much as KPRI with a weaker signal is having. Third, by not playing the artists that you are blackballing, you are effectively acting like that former twit music director at 91X in 2001 when he was doing the same freaking thing. And lastly, by not playing what the listeners want to hear, where are they going to go to listen to Reeve Oliver? Well, Star 94.1 could play their songs, and so could KYXY 96.5 becuase the act is basically a soft rock act, but your listeners will be turning off 94/9 like it's yesterday's news and flip their #1 buttons on the FM1 band to 91X like I just did this afternoon after I heard Marco going off about what the music director said to Reeve.

And to remind you, dear FM 94/9 music director, you answer to a boss I believe who could replace you with somebody else if the ratings for the station you are employed at don't improve in the next book or two. With a rating that low, and a competetor giving you the 666, you are in no position to piss off the local artists who are trying to make a living for themselves as well as their fans and your radio station listeners.

So you better make nice with Reeve and I do mean right now before he plays X-Fest presented by your local competetor.