“To be realistic, radio is largely operated by fools these days. Most oil change places are run better.” True. The last oil change place I went to couldn’t figure out how to run a fleet credit card, but usually they get most things right. Radio? Sales-driven, programming-illiterates that mismanage m...

That’s over 6 hours now every weekday spent on news, if I’m adding it up correctly. Obviously they can sell ad time on news broadcasts, and they don’t have to pay more people to just keep reading what they’ve read a few times before. Less airtime to fill with syndicated programming that has to be pa...

The Buzzboard, in some ways, is a little like the old Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA Telethon: people tune in just to see where the event (discussion) has gone off the rails, and to see what might happen (be posted) next. I’m usually amused by how far away from the original topic the conversation gets. I...

It’s a tribute to both Lee and the civility and respect he represented and inspired.

Here’s to more of that wherever it can be found.

Weeping for the future is all well and good, but if this message board is the joke of the business, as you also said today, aren’t you shedding your tears in the wrong direction? Why bother with this if it’s not worthy of any serious discussions? If your attempts are to either raise or lower the dis...

I was saddened to read of Lee’s passing. Condolences to his family and friends. It’s a testament to his place in GR that WOOD did a full story on him as well. I hope more of his kind are to come, as there aren’t enough real journalists today on local television newscasts. Style is fine, but without ...

The only weather guarantee anyone can provide is that there will be weather. A prediction is an educated guess, but it’s not a guarantee of a specific outcome. The meteorologist’s job is to provide a weather forecast that has a reasonable chance of accuracy. A television meteorologist’s job is to do...

I’d rather that they predict some rain and it not happen than the opposite. I’m sure the computer models they use indicated this was a likely weather event, so they all went with it. For those in the narrow band that did see heavy rain, this is a non-story. I saw the resultant coverage, and rain did...

I always remember Doug Jacobs and the Red Garter Band playing on the WJBK local cut-ins. They added an air of festivity to the show. Lewis’ history of charity fundraising went back to 1951, when he was part of what’s been called the first telethon, raising money for a New York hospital. What the MDA...

It wouldn’t matter to me if they didn’t cover the story. I just found it odd they were compelled to travel that distance, as if there weren’t enough stories to keep the news team busy in Detroit. It seemed a bit opportunistic, given the amount of qualified media already at the scene. Wouldn’t coveri...

What is the radius where a station considers it worthwhile to go out-of-state to a big news story? Dayton and Detroit share I-75, and not enough else to make this an obvious decision, regardless of the story. I figure this is as much about bragging rights and some clips to use in promos as it was ab...

I don’t know whether these will totally fit the bill, but some good choices I see are www.97five.com and www.kwxy.com. The former is internet only, and the latter is streaming from a California station (their website is a good read for the old-style radio fans, btw). It’s not 100% like the beautiful...

WPAG-FM in Ann Arbor ran beautiful music for a time. From somewhere around ‘80 or ‘81 until ‘86 or later, they were Beautiful 107, then Easy 107, same format but with a different name.

Percy Faith was great in his field - he deserved a tribute!

I had that happen to me once at a station some years back. I applied for one position there by answering an ad, was hired for a different position that hadn’t been posted yet, and got a rejection letter from the station I was already working at for that first job. They had likely posted their ad aft...

I haven’t seen Henry’s work on WOOD, and will try to seek that out. So much local news is beyond generic that it can take some searching to find authentic, old-school-style journalists and broadcasters to watch. Dwayne X. Riley in Detroit was on Channel 4 for 35 years, and seemed more than a standar...