Roger Catlin | TV Eye

Heavens They're Hasty

I’m not one to listen religiously to "A Prairie Home Companion" (it seems to be the same show every week, I complain). But I often do hear it, because it’s public radio and I might be out in the car running errands.

One of the charms of public radio's long-running "A Prairie Home Companion" comems when they pretend to be sponsored by all manner of homespun products, chief of which was Powdermilk Biscuits.

It was made from whole wheat raised in the rich bottomlands of Lake Wobegon river valley by Norwegian bachelor farmers, "so you know they’re not only good for you, but pure, mostly." These were the biscuits which "give people the strength to get up and do what needs to be done," of which host Garrison Keillor would say, "Heavens, they’re tasty and expeditious."

Lately, though, there’s been another biscuit listed as sponsor – Pillsbury Oven Baked Biscuits and Dinner Rolls. Sure, the company may have had another pudgy pitchman in the Pillsbury Dough Boy, but otherwise has nothing to do with Woebegon bottomlands and has never been accused of being expeditious.

In one of the realities of public radio, I suppose, the fanciful had been replaced by the hard and fast, in the name of funding.

Joining Pillsbury among actual advertisers is the Sleep Number Beds by Select Comfort , which guaranteed just the right firmness for "you and your partner." Which might prove they are no longer thinking of Norwegian bachelors even a little bit.

Jerry Kristafer's Return

Jerry Kristafer returned to the seat he occupied for 15 years at WDRC-FM Tuesday. Change of management led the way to his return from New Haven’s WELI, after a 10-year exile from Big D 103.

"You can’t believe how happy I am to be back here," he said.

Now installed alongside Marianne O’Hare, who began as a fill-in for Beth Bradley and whose career was halted by a heart condition, the show is called "Jerry And Marianne" pronounced so it (almost) rhymes.

Because she’s been holding down the fort herself (or with Mike Stevens) since co-host John "Cadillac" Saville was let go last month, O’Hare seemed to dominate the portions I heard of Kristafer's comeback show. Certainly, Kristafer didn’t seem to have come with a whole lot prepared.

Mostly the show cruised along on music and traffic reports. Aside the shocking realization that John Mellencamp’s "Small Town" now qualifies as an oldie alongside the usual Motown, the traffic reporter Michelle probably deserves her own name on the show for all the traffic reporting she does.

There was a very special guest and many arrangements were no doubt made to attain on the first day none other than Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Just kidding – that guy must have radio hosts on speed dial. Not 10 minutes earlier, he was on the line with Sebastian on WCCC talking about a puppy that had been attacked with a power drill (because that’s what Sebastian was interested in).

Blumenthal was taking the victory round celebrating a new agreement from MySpace tightening up security for minors.

On DRC, Kristafer addressed him as "General," as if he were calling Baghdad. Or perhaps this was humor.

Imus' Return

Don Imus returned to radio Monday at pretty much the place he left it -- fitfully talking about his remarks about the Rutgers womens basketball team that got him thrown off the air more than seven months ago.

Imus spent 15 minutes of his first half hour on WABC AM 770 in New York saying that the widely reported remark that got him fired from both WFAN and a simulcast on MSNBC was a life changing event for him. He met with the team April 12 having already lost his radio job, talking with them four hours to make amends for referring to the winning team as "nappy headed hos."

"I was there to save my life," he said. "I had already lost my job."

Before a live audience assembled before dawn at New York's Town Hall for his first program, Imus said being fired was fair for what he had said and promised to both include a discussion of racial realtions as part of his show and promised "I will never say anything in my lifetime to make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me."

And, he added, "no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn't deserve a second chance."

Still, at the end of his introductory mea culpa, Imus declared many things were still the same as when he was yanked from the air:

"Dick Cheney is still a war criminal" [big cheer from the live crowd], "Hilary Clinton is still Satan [even bigger cheer from the crowd] "and I'm back on the radio!" [biggest cheer of all].

The biggest change may have come in introducing a more diverse radio team, including two African-Americans. One was comedienne Karith Foster, who describes herself as a Jew from Texas. Her brief time on the air Monday concerned something extremely dated -- about New Yorkers electrocuted by metal plates on sidewalks -- something that happened in 2004.

The other newcomer of color is Tony Powell, also a comedian, whose commentary is on sports. He was a bit more timely Monday, saying the BCS championship must have been determined by hoodoo, an African folk magic Imus may have been unfamiliar with (see, he's already learning a new culture!). When Powell also mentioned the use of chicken bones, Imus asked him about it, as if he were edging into troublesome stereotypes.

Mostly, Imus was surrounded by his regular group of sycophants, who call him I-Man and laugh loudly as he approaches anything that sounds like a joke. It includes newsman Charles McCord (for whom Imus return to radio was the top news story of the morning), comic Rob Bartlett doing a Bill Clinton bit, and his old producer Bernard McGuirk, who in fact had initiated the conversation that resulted in the ho remarks.

It was a familiar sounding show, from the downhome sounds of Levon Helm, whose band joined him live to perform, to the endless onslaught of commercials, traffic checks and weather alerts.

Guests the first morning back included old favorites as well, from author Doris Kearns Goodwin, who compared Imus' struggles to those of Hemingway or FDR, and prominent politicians, including two running for President, John McCain, whom Imus says he backs, and Connecticut's Chris Dodd, who greeted the exiled radio star, "Welcome back, my friend!"

Bartlett's impersonation of Clinton was not only unfunny, it was salty enough (with references to "johnsons") that made it apparently made new cable simulcaster RFD-TV bleep it. Morning radio competitors Opie & Anthony, who have gone much farther in their show, also stopped by to show support. (Al Sharpton somehow was not invited).

As with his WFAN show, Imus' new one is syndicated nationally. and like the earlier show, it's heard in Connecticut primarily from the flagship station and easier to get on car radios than at home. It's also available online at www.wabcradio.com.

The Midwest-based RFD TV is not apparently carried by cable in Connecticut, but is available via satellite TV -- found on channel 379 on DirecTV, or Channel 231 on the Dish Network. And one of the prime sponsors of the first show was from Connecticut -- the Mohegan Sun Casino.

Rock 104 Redux

When Power 104 pulled the plug Monday on its urban format, ceding the genre to Hot 93.7, it not just returned to the so called "alternative rock" of Rock 104 that it replaced in 2003, it literally returned to the same artists the old 104 used to play.

Though the new station is named 104one, the computerized music lineup is out of a time warp, with bands straight out of Trivial Pursuit: The 90s: Three Days Grace, Oasis, House of Pain, Puddle of Mudd, Live, 311.

It may be a kick to hear Reel Big Fish do "Sell Out" for the first time in a decade, but can you build a whole radio station out of it?

There is the occasional current artist on the roster, which serves as pretty much an oldies station for people in their 30s (compared to WDRC or The River, which are oldies for Boomers in their 50s and up).

But it is only strictly one out of every ten songs I’ve sampled so far are bands like Kooks or Franz Ferdinand.

Bands pictured on the website look like a poster for a 104fest of yore: with Nirvana and Pearl Jam as the Beatles and Stones, with Beck, Beastie Boys, U2, Green Day, Sublime, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, The Dave Matthews Band.

There will scarcely be a DJ presence, so don't expect any local bands. Everything will issue from some Clear Channel computer in Clear Channeland. 

Every so often you’ll hit your forehead when they play something like "Hey Man, Nice Shot" from Filter, a song that probably deserves to have been forgotten a decade ago.

Alternative rock as shaped by commercial radio (and especially Clear Channel) was always a misnomer.

It was really no alternative at all; major labels and radio conglomerates co-opted the term once used for college radio for all manner of bland bands of neo-metal in new haircuts, guys who strove to be the new Pearl Jam.

And the alternative music you really want to hear (and any self-respecting alternative rock station would actually play) seill can be heard ... on actual college radio stations.

Fishing for Castiglione

A friend writes, lamenting the fact that he can't get his favorite Red Sox Radio Network announcers calling the World Series on Hartford's WTIC.

They are our Red Sox home all season long.  I've heard Joe Castiglione broadcast the games since I was growing up - he's like a friend.  I heard him in the ALCS with a great call of a Manny home run to left that he howled went 'deep into the night.' 

But I can't hear him on WTIC tonight, in Game 1 of the World Series.  WTIC has the national feed.  They did the same thing in 2004, and I was cheated out of hearing my local guys call the games then, too.  I'll bet in small, poor, depressed cities like Worcester, Springfield and Providence I can hear the local broadcasters.  But if those are small, poor, depressed cities where I can hear the best broadcast, than what does that make Hartford?  WTIC says we're just a bunch of drones. 

It's Major League Baseball's deal with ESPN Radio that they'll be handling the Series on every radio station except each home city's flagship station. While that does include Boston's WRKO 680 AM it does not include the 68 stations in six New England states comprising the Red Sox Radio Network, which for the whole rest of the season includes Hartford's WTIC in Connecticut.

It's a particularly bad time to be without their coverage. Castiglione -- a native of Hamden, after all -- just finished his 25th season of calling the Sox (though it was his first to do the games alternating with the bland Dave O'Brien and Glen Geffner -- where have you gone, Jerry Trupiano?).

If you can't bear to hear ESPN Radio's Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, or a team many think is even worse on the Fox TV broadcast -- Joe Buck and Tim McCarver -- you can still try to hear WRKO or WEEI stations out of Worcester, Springfield or Providence. I signed up for streaming audio from both, though, and got something other than the game altogather.

Sleeping Through My Radio Career

Oops, missed my scheduled appearance this morning on WPLR’s Chaz & AJ show.

Didn’t oversleep; I never even set the alarm. Just spaced it out. Was up to 1 a.m. as usual last night watching something horrible so missed getting up at 5:30 a.m. to make it to the 7 a.m. appearance.

It’s quite a schlep to Milford to make the studio appearance, which I do only because they ask me.

There’s no pay of course, and my editors never even find out about it (unless they’re up at that hour and wanting to hear some Bad Company).

When a producer called to see if I forgot, I apologized and told them I’d be happy to do it over the phone. No chance. Nonetheless, the hosts talked about TV with callers for an hour anyway.

A couple of them actually liked "Caveman," so maybe it’s not my audience anyway. Clearly, it’s not my time of day.

Upping the Wattage

It was an unusual day when in addition to my music show on lowly college radio, I was also called to co host no less than Colin McEnroe’s popular afternoon talk show on 50,000 watt WTIC.

Theresa Pelham sent the invitation. The freelance writer and frequent Colin co-host was given the Friday slot to fill amid a two week stint of fill-ins, and despite her fretting about the duty, she was loads better than the bitter ideologue Chris Healey who had handled Thursday’s show.

I had stepped in for Colin solo once, back when he had a morning radio show with fewer interruptions for weather and traffic. I was surprised how producers just sat me down at the console minutes until air time and let me go. Wasn’t there more training necessary?

That part of it hasn’t changed. In 2007, it was sink or swim again.

I thought for sure I was getting there late, 10 minutes before airtime, partly because I hadn’t been to the Farmington studio before (and Mapquest first took me directly to the transmission tower instead; luckily it wasn’t far away).

But I was there first. Denis Horgan, the longtime Courant columnist and blogger, had also been invited (I was sure it was because she thought one of us would have turned her down).

So there we both were, but Teresa still hadn’t showed up until minutes before show time. She had to be reminded of the buttons’ function and had a couple ideas but basically we were thrown up there on the air.

Horgan talked about his new book “Flotsam,” I talked to a few listeners about TV; Teresa shared her stories about car hunting. We interviewed an organizer of a home movie festival in New Haven. When Arnold Dean came in to do sports, we were in awe of a person who was an actual radio professional – perhaps the only one in the building.

And when it was all over we got up and left. And nobody said anything about our volunteer appearance or even said bye. It was kind of weird.

Imus in the Mourning

The day after MSNBC canned him, CBS radio did, too and now Don Imus is off the air for good without a chance for him to say goodbye.

It was a story that only intensified once the hurt parties, the Rutgers women’s basketball team, began to be vocal about their reaction, first in a press conference and then on Oprah Thursday. By then it was no longer Imus vs. Al Sharpton, which was a much more difficult choice.

In the end, it may have been some old time network executive one-upmanship at work. It was Jeff Zucker who had a hand in kicking the show’s simulcast of MSNBC Wednesday, so naturally it was his old nemesis Les Moonves who made the move to eliminate the radio show. But what else could he do? Have the company come down on the side of saying “nappy headed ho’s”?

Imustaken

The way the Don Imus story has been parceled out it’s possible to see his long career collapse in slow motion. First he makes his idiot comment last Wednesday (one of just about any idiot comment made just about every day on his morning show – this is just one that somebody noticed enough to formally complain about on Thursday. Then it was picked up on Friday, when he profusely apologized.

Monday he apologized even more but at the end of the day was still suspended for two weeks (big deal – he takes vacations longer than that) and it’s not to start until next Monday (fantasy replacement show for MSNBC: that mechanical camera just going around that empty, brightly lit studio for three hours).

When Rutgers finally gets around to having its own press conference on Tuesday, the comments the team members make are so thoughtful in expressing their hurt (and surprise at the reaction of the media: where were they when they were winning, they asked the largest press conference they ever faced) that had it been held on Monday instead, Imus career would be over at just about his traditional retirement year.

As it is, MSNBC decided late Wednesday Imus wouldn’t return at all to its air. It could scarcely have made any other decision.

Imus is Still Sorry

The tone on “Imus in the Morning” Monday was a little familiar: The halting cadence, the voice lowered in apology, the contrite words.

“I’m sorry I did that,” he said on his show. “I’m embarrassed that I did that. I did a bad thing. But I’m a good person.”

It sounded just like Michael Richards’ equally apologetic moment on “The Late Show with David Letterman” following his racist tirade in Los Angeles.

Richards’ lowpoint came during a bombing comedy routine before dozens in a club – that got a huge audience through its capture on a cell phone video.

Imus reference to the Rutgers Women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hos” came during a broadcast last Wednesday on his syndicated radio show originating from WFAN New York that is simulcast on cable through MSNBC.

He apologized for the remark on Thursday, gave a formal apology on Friday and apparently after a weekend of talks on the phone and a morning when his comment was the topic of two separate items in the New York Times, he gave up a lot of his show Monday providing “context” to his remark; the good work he does at his children’s camp and other charities.

That, too, sounded like Michael Richards saying “I'm not even a racist. That's the insane thing about this.”