The Geek Factor in Portland Radio

NOTE: Wow My last post is rather bleak in appearance. I admit  I was zooming around the interwebs trying to find everything I could on the firings at KUFO, and what those who were in the know were saying, what the fans were saying and what Alpha/KUFO was saying and all I ended up with is blurbs stacked on top of blurbs with no real rhyme or reason to how I put it down. (in my defense everyone in my household has been sick this week. Most of us sleeping 18+ hours a day due to this.)

I’ve written about The Rick Emerson Show before. How it’s a pop culture Smörgåsbord. I have not really written anything about Cort and Fatboy however it is in a similar vein. Both shows had a certain Geek factor to them. Yes the geek element isn’t as large as the mouth breathing element out there but the geeks do have the habit of finding something and making it their own. They stick to it. They support it.

What’s Funny is I’ve heard that one advertiser has already dropped out. Then again VISO beverage was always a Rick Emerson Show Advertiser rather than a KUFO advertiser. Nothing like highly caffeinated drinks to warm the harts of local Portland geeks and those abroad.

There are other outlets for Fans of the shows. I’ve mentioned the Rick Emerson Show Podcasts and as of right now the links to the Podcasts take you to the KUFO homepage. Hopefully there will be an official place to get old podcasts. But for now you can get some of them at the Tegian zone TEG has said that he is working on getting the rest up.

Cort and Fatboy’s Podcasts were always about twice as long as heard on air and it has been said that they will continue podcasts online. They also host a midnight movie. The next movie is Raising Arizona and it is at the Bagdad Theater as usual. The movie starts at 11:00 PM on the 6th of November. Tickets are a whole $3 at the door, It’s 21 years of age and older due to plenty of alcohol being served. (yes their site is a little bare right now due to the recent changes.)

I did get around to listening to an Interview Rick Emerson did on WSU campus Radio 10/29/09 it’s long but great, if you are interested in radio personalities. He talks about the resent firings, zombies, his early career and how he got into radio, the future of radio, answering questions from the students and talking about various other radio related subjects.

KOUG Radio interview with Rick Emerson

One thing he did say that was interesting is that, Some fans felt there was no distinction to listening to the Rick Emerson Show on the radio, live, on line or delayed via the podcasts.

I found this rather interesting. It’s something that most of us have noticed, that with the internet it has become easier for the little guys to put their form of expression out for others to find, from Indy musicians, to Kevin Smith podcasts talking about anal with his wife, and yes even blogs such as this one, but what I find interesting is consumers are starting to lump every thing into one compartment. Whether it is music, movies,live streaming, radio podcasts, internet podcasts and all the other sundry bits and bytes that can be found online. The thing is, it is all portable. You can watch/listen to it on your PC/Laptop/Phone….Download speeds are getting faster, storage is getting smaller and larger, Digital Entertainment can be taken anywhere now.

Many of the two canceled shows Facebook fans are using a fan made picture as their profile photo.

“Don’t let the bastards grind you down” was just one of the phrases Emerson would use at the close of the show and one I’m gonna try to remember as I wrap this up.

Portland Airwaves Dumbed Down Again.

As of Friday, October 23rd, KUFO’s morning slot, The Rick Emerson Show (v.6.3) is no more, along with Cort and Fatboy, KUFO’s afternoon show.

“What’s the opposite of shinny?” Asks Rick Emersons via twitter on 4:07 PM Oct 23rd.
We the fans assume this was posted right after the mid-afternoon meeting with one of the station’s new executives, Scott Mahalick. Of course the meeting was concerning the terminations of The Rick Emerson Show. The Cort and Fatboy Show was also canceled.

101.1 KUFO was recently sold to Alpha Broadcasting by CBS along with CBS’s other local stations. This has left many wondering when the changes would start. Now we know. We know and are saddened. The lowest common denominator has been “fed.” Alpha also owns 98.7 KUPL, 101.9 KINK, Freedom 970am, 750 KXLam and 95.5 FM the game.

For those who like the music played on KUFO don’t worry there will be more of the same with less talk in between songs but if you only tuned in to hear the DJs/Talent then you may want to go the IPod route and start looking for good Podcasts.

The new line up consist of The Kidd Chris Show, 5:00-10:00am Know for his appearances on the Howard Stern. Kidd Chris was fired from his last radio gig in early 08 for a song parody that was “highly offensive and completely inappropriate for broadcast” According to management at the time. (You can find the lyrics to this below in one of the linked articles to judge for yourself.)

Ditch on the Job, 10:00am-3:00pm The new PD and afternoon host. Hopefully he keeps the Prank calls to a minimum.

Ricker, 3:00pm-7:00pm Another shock joke….Er Jock persona. I really can’t call this guy talent. Even if he has a large Seattle Fan base.

Marconi, 7:00pm-12:00am Back in 2004, Marconi along with his co-hoast laughed and played music to the screams of American Nick Berg as he was beheaded in Iraq.
Art Webb, 12:00am-5:00am

The Oregonian’s Peter Carlin Chimes in as well with Shake up at KUFO

Oregon Media Central’s recent Post is a pretty good read as well.

Mike Russell of CulturePulp has a great article and links to just about everything there is out there concerning the changes.

To rub it all in someone had the bright Idea to play “Let the bodies hit the floor” as the first song of the new line up. Alienated a few fans that at least wanted to give the new format a “chance”

The bottom line is that Alpha Broadcasting has gotten rid of 8 or so talented individuals and brought in two “personalities” Stuck their new Program Director into the Mid day slot and moved Art Bell. All these changes lowered talent costs and in my opinion dumbed down the airwaves.

Cataloging old show podcasts and searching for freshnew ones instead of listeneing to the radio once again. Should really get one of those Car radios that take sim cards to play what I want.

This is horrible. I have no idea what to write about. And I’ve felt this way for a couple weeks. There is nothing going on in my life that is causing this. Actually I’m pretty content right now.

I did start a no smoking kick again this week. Me and Chantix are becoming close friends it seems.

The kids and I have been playing with my old legos that I saved from when I was younger. They still won’t put them away when they are done. (I’ve stored them in a 5 gallon bucket) So I guess I should put them up on a shelf again…Maybe the grandkids will be more respectful. (Plus you don’t want to step on these things in the middle of the night)

Been Playing Mafia Wars on Facebook…Watching TV…Shopping for Halloween costumes…..Drinking coffee…bang’n the wife…..You know. All the fun stuff that keeps us occupied.

Haven’t seen a movie recently so can’t really comment on one….hmmmm Well it is the Halloween season…Ok how about my top 5 zombie movies.

5. Dawn of the Dead.
The remake. Come on the zombies RAN.
4. Shawn of the Dead.
British Comedy and zombies. What’s not to love about this film?
3. Dead Alive.
Ok this is an older one from 92…best use of a lawnmower ever.
2. Army of Darkness.
Ok maybe they aren’t Zombies but the deadites are pretty close. And whats a movie list without Bruce Campbell in it?
1.Return Of The Living Dead.
Back in 85 Zombies first uttered…um Mumbled…er Moaned “Braineeeessss” for the first time. Also one of the first zombie movies I saw. So there is a certain place in my hart for it.

I still love Halloween. More the dressing up like a fiend or zombie and scaring people rather than giving out candy to kiddies.

I’ll post pics of the costume I have this year…Sometime….

PDX Halloween Bazaar

This weekend the I took the family to the Portland Halloween Bazaar at the Lloyd Center DoubleTree Exhibit Hall. It was ghoulish, cheesy, and fun. While there were not many costumes for sale there were tricks and treats for every age. The kids and the wife enjoyed the crafting table, where one could put together 3d wooden puzzles of spiders, witches, and skeletons, paint, or color pictures And scary plaster skulls. The thing that gave me the most laughs was a 10 foot clown….

FYI: The Fear of clowns is called, coulrophobia.

Yes there is someone in there. And he would stand motionless until a new group of unsuspecting passersbyers would come near before quickly raising his puppeteered arms and hands and rush at the newcomers. Some would laugh. Others would scream, and quite a few actually ran away. OH and I did see him actually make a young child cry. I don’t think he did it on pourpous as the child was walking behind the adults and out of the clowns direct line of sight.

Loosing steam

Ok maybe not loosing steam but fall tv is in full swing and I’ve been watching a little to much. What with shows like Fringe, Bones, NCIS, CSI, and Smallville I find myself away from the computer more and more.

However tonight I couldn’t sleep and went blog hopping. Over at Stop and Wander amuirin posted some nude pics up and I left a comment that my nude pussy pic was better than hers. SO of course I have to post my favorite one. While it’s not technically mine it is one I have had for a long time.

The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!

Ok…Maybe it’s not “better” but I have had it for a while. Found it somewhere on the net….Call it my zombie cat or ‘if brain was a cat’ pic.

Ren Faire Pic

Someone caught me napping.

Caught Napping

That is all!

Post Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire

Well we hit up the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire for the second time and had a pretty good time. Took some pictures…Like this one:

Random Snap shot

And this one.

Also took a pic of someones armor. I saw it being worn but forgot to take a picture then. They had it displayed in their guild yard.

Watched the Imperial Knights Preform a couple times. They were rather good. Mounted target competition with spears…..Here just watch there promotional video….

A group got married early Saturday morning which was cool but since I didn’t really know any of the participants I won’t put up any of those pictures.

While there was plenty of stuff to purchase from vendors I only got two things. A Flask and a bottle. I’ll have to describe them better below but just so you know you can buy a whole set of “garb” (fair costume) swords, other weaponry, armor, many other accessories and doo dads are available as well. There were also Food vendors and that’s where my first purchase came into play. There is a stand that sells fresh made Root beer, Birch Beer (a little stronger than the root beer) Sarsaparilla, and cream soda. Now they sell it in bottles from a 16 oz all the way up to a huge 2 litter glass jug. I purchased one of the middle sizes for 9 bucks but then refills are only 2 bucks. I also snagged one of their leather holsters for it. I guess that’s two purchases but I only count it as one since they go together.

I don’t remember where I got this next item but It caught my attention as soon as I saw it.

Maybe you can’t tell right off but the center is glass on both sides of this round flask. I don’t carry a flask normally and it’s not quite up to vault 13 water flask standards it is pretty cool. Here is a better pic showing you can see right through it.

While the lunch box has been mine I grabbed it to show off the glass windows in the flask and couldn’t help but put Pip boy in the center.

The truck is still full of our stuff and I really need to go get it cleaned out.

Honesty

So amuirin over at Stop and Wander decided to tag/nominate me for the Honest Scrap award. What’s that you say? Well it’s basically a hey I just listed 10 honest things about myself and I want to see what 10 things you can come up with, however if your being hit by someone of Am’s caliber then she must think that you show a “remarkable honesty” in your blog. (she certainly shows such in hers) Once you finish your list you are supposed to pass the award off onto your blog friends, while they in turn must do the same. So this brings me to Number 10

10. I don’t have enough contacts or readers or blog friends on here to pass this off too. I’m selective with friends in real life and the same goes for the blogs I check out.

9. I wish to win the big Powerball lottery so I can do nothing but what I feel like doing for the rest of my days. I don’t want a butler or servants but it would be nice to have someone clean the house, mow the lawn, cook regular meals, be my driver (because quite frankly I don’t really like driving more than 10 minutes.)
After paying off families mortgages and bills and donating some to certain causes I really have no big plans for the rest of the cash I guess I’d build a new house. Something that looked castlesque on the outside but all the newest modern conveniences on the inside. Go suba diving in the Caribbean. (shrug)

8. I have a thing for Red Heads and nice breasts. While the last part is not a huge surprise the red head thing is to most people I know. If I’m cruising the interwebs for pron or whatever and see a Red head of hair I will check it out a lot quicker than just about anything else. If I see a Red Head on the streets or in a store I will take a second and third look. While I’m not too creepy normally Red Heads do it for me. Jean Grey is my favorite female X-man. I use to read Spiderman comics not for spidey so much but for Mary Jane.

7. I use to read comics, but like so much of my geekhood I gave them up when I got married. Not because she said I couldn’t (that wouldn’t have gone over well) but because I figured I needed to grow up since I was married.

6. It takes approximately 20 minutes for me to take a dump. I read, play with the features on my phone, Grunt and push, then wipe until the TP comes up clean.

5. I like coffee. But that’s not it really. I like coffee with cream and lots of sugar. So much sugar that I don’t have a beer belly I have a coffee, cream and sugar belly. If I need to loose weight for the military I switch to diet creamer and I can loose about 10 to 15 lbs in a month. If it’s not cream and sugar I use vanilla creamer. I really should get the diet kind but it’s not the same. So I like Foo foo coffee. Well not all foo foo coffee. I hate Starbucks. All their coffee tastes burnt to me. (well except for the canned Starbucks Double shots they sell in the stores near the energy drinks….I love those)

4. I SIT DOWN TO PEE. If you haven’t figured it out yet I am a guy but yes alot of the time I do sit down to just take a wiz. The thing is I have two female children ages 11 and 6…….they will just walk into the bathroom no matter if their mother is in there or I am. Doesn’t matter what we are doing either. Instead of locking the door I just decided it would be easier to cop a squat than keep them from the mirrors and hair doo dads and whatever secret lotions and crap women keep in the bathroom. This all started when my oldest was younger and asked her mother why daddy had a tail.

3. Talking to my oldest daughter (11) after watching watchmen and discussing Sex wasn’t nearly as hard as you would think.

2. Sex on the beach isn’t one of my fantasies….It’s pretty and all but you accidentally get a few grains of sand in there and the romance is gone. On the other hand if you have nice beach house with a nice view of the beach, ocean and setting sun and I’m there. I prefer the comfort of a bed, couch, kitchen table, washing machine…..The same goes for sex in the woods. It sounds romantic but I’d rather have the comforts of a tent at the least. (with a large air mattress because nothing ruins the moment like a large stick or rock digging into your backside.) However after saying all this and I just happen to be in one of these situations and the moment is right………..

1. Just went to the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire and found out that the ladies with tails hanging off the sides of there belts (like scalps) denoted how many times they have shagged at faire. Now these were all single females ( I am assuming ) I have to admit that there were a few that I wouldn’t have minded giving a new tail to. There were also some that I shuddered to think who would actually do them….( Please wax that upper lip ) Then I see some of the other faire goers and how much home brewed drinks get passed around and I understand. What’s worse is the kids seeing the adults wearing them wanted one as well so the clueless parents got them for their children. So now you have ages 8 and up wearing these tails. It was hard to tell where the Kids tails stopped and the shag tails started. At least most of the kids wore theirs like an actual tail instead of the spoils of war.

A rollin’ I go.

So today I decided to really hit up some blogs. Looking for some inspiration, some laughs, or even a kick to the chops. I didn’t know. I decided to start at one blog read the first entry. Leave a remark or not, then Click one of that blogs links. So I started off somewhere familiar. Norm over at Unmerited Gifts. Read the post and then left a comment and finally clicked on Discombobula Wow so much in one post it was too much for me. (and yes I did read the whole post Sue.)

I hit the back button on my browser and Went back to familiar territory. On Norm’s Sight once again, I saw a link I was familiar with so hit it. Lazybuddhist’s blog, then read the most recent entry again and smiled. Sounds like she was describing me instead of her boyfriend. Had to comment on why some of us wear blue jeans, T-shirts, and cheep 5 dollar sunglasses.

Scrolling down the links there, one caught my eye A Guy, a Girl, Three Cats and a Dog, so I clicked it. With a name like that……The first post was a little short so I ended up reading three. Good stuff. Addicted to crosswords? Sending a letter to your Elliptical Glider? Hehe ok someone with a slight askewed sense of humor. I like that. Gonna have to check them out more.

Hmmm not many links on this one. Click…Hmmm Over 5 months since this ones last post….Bahhh have to Hit the back button again… Hmmm Cute overload…Hmm the little previewer pops up and Ahhh Hell no! There not kidding about the overload part…. Hmmm Wasted Days and Wasted Nights looks promising. Wait..Looks familiar…Ok been here before but not in a while. Good post about remembering Patrick Swayze. Well maybe not him in particular…Bahh I can’t even describe what she did here. Corina is a good writer.

Hmm Ok a Ray Stevens inspired name will get me every time so I click on Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Margaret Hehe another good post. New Job, making better money, sending your youngest off to Kindergarten and your oldest is a senior….Hmm Dead end. No links to their favorite blogs…..Grrr Getting tired of back tracking.

Ok lets try out Pandemonic’s Time and Space. (sounds like a Dr Who reference to me) lets see…..hehe ok funny. Even if I don’t see the whole picture because I’m only reading the most recent post….I did get kinda confused towards the end due to this, but have to move on. Keep the momentum going. (ok How come I can spell momentum and not Towards with out the spell checker letting me know I spelled it wrong?) Never mind that, Lets look at Pan’s links.

A Little More Ground hehe. Avatars. I have to agree in a slightly different way. I guess you can thank MMO’s for that. This is a new Blog it seams. Just a few posts. If you see this Sea Tea hang in there. Once again no links so Backing up again.

Quotidian Vicissitudes I have no idea what that even means. Thanks for making me feel dumb David. Book review….I like those. Hmm ok. Ummm I feel dumb again. Quick where are those links.

Dazed Capades A poem….Not really into them…Hey this ones got a little humor in it. Ok I like this poem. Maybe that’s what’s missing. I like Funny. Yes that’s with a capital F. (I do have a tendency to capitalize words for no reason. I go back and catch most of them.) Poetry can be moving I love Poe. I guess it has such a visual element to it. It’s the abstract poetry that I don’t get I guess. Anyways moving on….Hmm no links…..Wait whats this next post…..Towel Porn? LOL Wow. These guys may make it onto my blog roll. That’s what this is all about anyways. Finding new blogs to frequent…Hmmm Ok lets see if it’s a trifecta. Yep Their third most recent post had me smiling in sympathy cause I’ve been in the same situation…Well not to get to a cruise ship but all the airport delays and such….This blog is why I was doing this today. Adding them to my favorite blog links. I have no Idea what the rest of their blog is about but if these three are any indication…Well, I’ll be checking back often.

Hmmm I may have to do this more often. That’s it for now tho Gonna go read some more of Dazed’s stuff.

Getting along.

So, I have worked some things out with the wife. Set some ground rules for both of us. Guess we will see where that leads us. I hope she doesn’t screw this up again because I really don’t want to leave my kids. The conversations were not pretty. There was crying and cringing and the occasional smoke break, But in the end things seems to have gotten a little better. Even with what we talked about I hope things improve even more not that I just want to forget the past because I don’t want it to be repeated but with the new course we are taking things shouldn’t be as tense anymore.