Because he’s the 11-time National Sportswriter of the Year. Because he can make you laugh and cry within a column ostensibly about sports but really about comedy and heartache and life. But mostly, I miss Rick Reilly because his Sports Illustrated fill-ins suck ass. Take this week. In the midst…
Punch. Counter-punch. This morning at 11, 103.3-FM ESPN debuts Michael Irvin’s show. Not just coincidentally, KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket) is promoting a “major announcement” around 11:10. Don’t get your radio thong in a wad over either event. Irvin, who has been in court all week fighting a former contractor, will…
I’ve just spent the last three minutes mumbling to myself, “What the fuck?” Which isn’t all that rare, if you wanna know the truth. But in this particular instance, it’s because someone just e-mailed me the link to this particular item up for grabs on eBay: Tripping Daisy’s 1999 Dallas…
Thanks to some dude named Anthony Noto at Goldman Sachs, newspaper stocks are tanking today. Seems Noto, who Forbes recently said was pretty good at picking stocks, said today that he “anticipates ad sales will weaken further as economic conditions continue to deteriorate in 2008,” and Goldman Sachs today is…
Josh Venable, headin’ to the City of Angels Turns out, Josh Venable still works for Clear Channel after all — only, now it’s in Los Angeles. Clear Channel’s Dallas market manager, J.D. Freeman, sends words that today, it was officially announced that the former Adventure Club host and KDGE-FM (102.1)…
Yaser Abdel Said Not 48 hours after the shooting deaths of two teenage sisters in Irving, the blogosphere is atwitter with the missives of angry scribes who’ve already branded the girls’ father, 50-year-old cab driver Yaser Abdel Said, an “honor killer” in a frenzy of Oh-my-God-Muslims-are-ruining-our-country hysteria. And police have…
Our old pal J.D. Freeman, Dallas-Fort Worth’s market manager for Clear Channel Radio, fills us in today concerning some changes around the DFW dial. As in: KDGE-FM (102.1) needs a new morning show, as Lex & Terry are moving over to the recently resuscitated KEGL-FM (97.1) come January 9. (The…
Damned if I can find any hint of this on KDFW-Channel 4’s Web site, which might be the worst local TV-news site in town, but MediaWeek brings news that the Fox owned-and-operated station has paired up with journalism students from SMU on a new site called Fox U News, which…
The comedy team of Delkus & Hansen was in high gear New Year’s Eve down at Victory Park, where, clearly, someone spiked the punch. Speaking of punch, the WFAA-Channel 8 sports anchor sure knows how to welcome a new member to the team. Happy New Year, Cynthia Izaguirre. You too,…
It figures that one of our final items of 2007 would deal with sports radio — though, to be fair, it has nothing to do with KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket). Well, not really, though if memory serves former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin did used to have a weekly…
Where’s Greggo, you ask? Why, right here — in a Ticket promo from 2004, posted to the YouTubes over the weekend. There’s also one from ’04 starring the morning-show boys — and it’s very Larry Craig. –Robert Wilonsky…
KDFW-Channel 4’s Rebecca Aguilar — still missing more than two months later Rowlett’s Marisa Trevino is a friend of Rebecca Aguilar’s; she’s very clear about that in her Scripps News-syndicated column about Aguilar’s continued absence from KDFW-Channel 4, from which Aguilar was indefinitely suspended in October following her polarizing parking-lot…
Mark Donald, the new editor of the Dallas Observer The Dallas Observer will begin the new year with a new editor: Mark Donald. His should be a very familiar name to longtime readers of the paper version of Unfair Park: Mark — who now demands to be called Mr. Donald,…
Mike Rhyner, at left, weighed in today about the future of The Hardline. Moments ago, The Hardline host Mike Rhyner and sidekick Corby Davidson spoke at great length about the fate of KTCK-AM’s drive-time show — specifically, the cease and desist about which Richie wrote yesterday and the what’s-next for…
As we pointed out in November, Clear Channel’s experiment at KZPS-FM (92.5, also known as Lone Star Radio) ain’t working out as the San Antonio-based media giant had hoped. In April, ZPS went commercial-free in hopes of playing more music per hour and attracting listeners jumping ship in favor of…
For those who can’t wait till Texas Monthly’s new issue hits the stands, the mag has kindly posted its 2008 Bum Steer Awards — and by my count, Houston, with its 11 separate items, is far more bum-steer than Dallas, which only garners six (not including ones related to, oh,…
Greggo, at right, is gone — even his drops have been adiosed, alas. If you’re a listener of KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket) — and judging from my saturated e-mail inbox and your comments, you most certainly are — this week you’ve heard a subtle, yet significant change. Or maybe you…
Mark Graham Not much early blogging today: I’m scheduled to appear on Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price’s radio show at 8 a.m.: Liberation Nation, sitting at KNON-FM (89.3) on your transistor’s tuner. The subject: this week’s cover story, about architect William Sidney Pittman and his Knights of Pythias Temple…
4:30 p.m. Just got back from an afternoon field trip to the Sigel’s liquor store at Cole and Fitzhugh avenues with Bobsky, ’cause when Bobsky says, “Grimes, let’s drink,” there’s nothing to do but grab one’s purse and traveling hat and follow the man in the motorcycle boots to the…
Uncle Barky, who watches local TV so you don’t have to, today provides his local TV year-in-review — a Top 10 rundown of “2007’s most notable happenings,” leading off with David Finfrock’s hacking cough, poor guy. Amazingly, Rececca Aguilar ain’t the top dog in Ed’s pack o’ picks. –Robert Wilonsky…
J.D. Freeman, Clear Channel’s Dallas market manager, called this morning with the news that as of 10 a.m. today, 97.1-FM is once more … The Eagle. As in, “We’ll play artists like Metallica, Nirvana, Ozzy Osbourne, Linkin Park,” etc. As we reported last month, Clear Channel ditched the Spanish-language format…
According to Editor & Publisher, folks ain’t spending a lot of time trolling The Dallas Morning News’ Web site. And the number’s dropping precipitously, at least when Nielsen compared November 2007 to November 2006 — down 18.5 percent, which ain’t as much as USA Today’s 27.8 percent free fall, but,…
