What I've Been Up To

Checking in to say that I haven't obtained gainful employment since 2008. Aint that some shit? That's right, I'm still not working.

I've done some odds and ends type jobs to keep bread on the table...but no one will hire someone with all of my experience and education in this industry.

Thinking about removing my college degree and dumbing my resume down.....all the way down.

The Difference Between Black & White

If you're not familiar with the Opie & Anthony show, it's probably because you're not a white male between the ages of 18-49 from one of the 40 cities where their radio show aired during morning drive. I can't say that I've ever been a fan myself. I can't really accuse them of having a horrible show because I can't really say that I've ever given them the opportunity to "WOW" me. Kinda like how I'm not a fan of golf or skiing....I've never had an interest to play or watch either sport.

I'm not really interested in doing a history lesson on their career. You can read about the various controversies that they been involved in here. To sum it up, they are lastlucker at best, shock jocks who were making a shitload of money (at least 4 million dollars each) but had been fired from terrestrial radio. They basically skipped the unemployment line and were awarded a golden opportunity to do uncensored radio on Sirius XM.My brief research on these douchebags have revealed that they've even been suspended from work since their arrival on satellite radio. (how the hell does THAT happen?) But that's not the good part. The clincher is what happened just last week AND is a phenomenal example of the difference between Black & White.

Taken from Radio-Info.Com

"They grumbled about their lack of negotiating leverage on Friday’s show, but both Opie (Gregg Hughes) and Anthony Cumia did eventually sign. Opie says “I was just held up, to sign a contract. I signed a very mediocre deal and here he go: I'm back for another two years.” He says, sourly, “As soon as I signed, they ran away like [expletive] rats to wherever they go with the contract. I'm beyond pissed.” He says he didn’t sign until 5:40am Friday morning. Anthony says he'd inked his own renewal late Thursday evening. Opie bemoans the situation, saying “this [Sirius XM] is the only game in town.” How does it compare with the contract that just expired? Opie says “the original deal was mediocre, so this is mediocre. It’s about the same.” There no official release from Sirius XM about the status of the Opie & Anthony on the “Virus” talk show channel."

When you're white, you can get fired over and over again, get suspended for doing things that you KNOW are wrong, get paid millions and millions of dollars to do the same thing that others are doing for minimum wage, receive an offer to renew an employment agreement and publicly bitch and moan about how unhappy you are with the terms of that offer. (wow. just wow)

When you're black, well.......you know the rest.

Tired, Tired, Tired....

I've been painfully quiet. I know. It's been MONTHS since I've blogged. Sometimes you reach a point where you're just tired. Tired of crying. Tired of whining. Tired of complaining. Tired of being tired. Tired of faking it. Tired of pretending like everything is alright....when it's not.

Wait....Then again, maybe I may need to clarify. I think what I mean is that I was tired of TALKING. I haven't given up altogether but again, I was just tired of talking. There's nothing worse than being passionate about a cause....about change...about progress and having an entire population of folk look at you all cross eyed and shit. In other words, the industry, particularly the URBAN RADIO industry is silent as hell - and quite frankly, their silence had silenced me.

Welp - I've had a change of heart. As my situation hasn't improved much, (in fact, it's gotten worse) I have decided to continue to blog about my experience, my feelings and my anger. I am even considering relaunching this blog to see if I can get folk to talk again. After all, aren't we in the business of COMMUNICATION? [insert crosseyed-confused look here]

I'm back.

Where I've Been...

I gotta make this REALLY quick because I gotta go to bed.

I got mad and stopped blogging for a while because for the past 10 years or so, I've been incredibly frustrated with people stealing ideas/concepts from me. I found it happening over and over and over again. For instance, I could present an idea, a feature or a potential promotion to my program director for the purpose of enhancing my show. I would get shut the hell down....but they would jack it the concept, give it to another jock and totally disregard my efforts. It made me SO DAMN MAD.

So after being off the airwaves for a few years, I decided to blog about my experiences and the current state of radio in my own little space. Non stop freedom in my little piece of the world wide web with the right to say whatever the FUCK I want to say. But then, something happened.

The blogs/websites that I have constantly shown love and support to started JACKING my content AND images without giving credit to me as the original source. Perhaps I'll get specific a little later....but for now I'll just say, that shit aint right.

But let me clarify something. No - - it aint that serious....but the gumption of it all really got underneath my skin. It was at that moment that I got tired of people sucking my blood dry. I mean, what's wrong with crediting the source? In one instance, I blogged about a comment on another blog that the AUTHOR ignored for weeks. I brought it up....and suddenly, there was an interest.

Sounds kinda childish for me to even make a slight stink over it....but I just figured enough was enough.

I thought that when you show people love....people are supposed to show YOU love. But not so. What's wrong with you Black people?

Specifics will be provided later.

So here am I. Public once again. Filled with more hatred than ever for the radio game. I'm bursting with emotions thanks to the legendary 107.5 WBLS for letting Cedric The Entertainment scream and yell on the air, sounding like a fucking fool the other day.

I really must retire for the evening....But I'll be back.

PS- Lay off the copy and paste feature for a while. Please.

I Applied For The Job...They Gave It To Nick Cannon

Yes. I FEEL like giving up. Hell, after nearly TWO YEARS of not having a job,you kind of become discouraged. You wallow in your sorrow. You stop applying for work because you figure, "what's the use". But I put my big girl panties on and I sent the CBS owned, 92.3 NOW my audition tape. As per the advice of a good friend of mine, I decided to attempt to go "f*ck with the white boys". I certainly could be successful if they were to give me a chance.

But instead of hiring me, they gave Nick Cannon the job. Nick is quoted as saying,

"I always wanted to do radio."


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WHY ISN'T ANYONE SAYING SOMETHING??

WHY IS BLACK RADIO SO SILENT RIGHT NOW? IS ANYONE PAYING ATTENTION???

Arbitron was grilled by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday over the Portable People Meter (PPM). Chair Rep. Edolphus "Ed" Towns (D-NY) seemed certain that new electronic measurement tool could "drive minority broadcasters out of business." Not so, said Radio One President/CEO Alfred Liggins. In his opinion PPM is "neither affecting the diversity of our airwaves nor contributing to the decline of minority radio."

Liggins says that the problems faced by many minority stations were due to "poor choices," such as accruing too much debt and what he labeled as bad competitive decisions.

He also stated that technology changes are inevitable and that "short-term dislocations" and a "learning curve" are the products of these changes. But, he said, "PPM is the new reality," and that he'd rather move forward than creating delays that could "undermine advertisers' confidence."

After hearing testimony from witnesses, including Arbitron, Towns gave Arbitron 30 days to formulate a realistic plan to address the concerns of PPM critics, including sample size, training for PPM panelists and Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation, which Arbitron only has in two of the 33 PPM markets.

"Arbitron seems to take the MRC's code of conduct as a mere suggestion. This approach must change," said Towns. "I'm willing to go to legislation, but I'd like us all to work together."

"The MRC has ongoing concerns," said MRC Executive Director George Ivie, who is also a panelist. In Riverside where PPM is accredited, the MRC has found that performance metrics have declined since it was accredited. "Arbitron needs to demonstrate it can sustain performance. Because it hasn't been sustained in Riverside," added Ivie. (12-02-09)

WHAT?!!?!?

I can't. I just can't. Maybe I'll muster up enough strength to expand on this later. (Maybe)

Deep Doo Doo

I think I just found out why WBLS in New York hasn't technically named Wendy's replacement.

Taken from the New York Times:

"Inner City Broadcasting, which owns 17 commercial stations nationwide and was co-founded in 1971 by Mr. Sutton, faces a possible financial collapse because of pressure by Goldman Sachs and GE Capital to repay nearly $230 million in debt, Pierre Sutton, his son, said in an interview Wednesday."

read the rest, HERE.

This, my friends, is what we call deep doo-doo. Their azzes are crying broke. I guess it would defy logic to hire someone capable of improving the ratings in afternoons, huh? Traditionally speaking, great ratings equate to great revenue. New York radio is hopeless. It really is.