DCRTV.com

[bk77]

What are your thoughts about DCRTV?

I myself like it. Dave sure knows radio though I have to admit he does tend to go a bit overboard with WJFK and "Don & Mike". I even heard that Don & Mike themselves have slammed the site and Dave Hughes in the past both online and on the air for that reason. OTOH, I heard both really like DCRTV and really lend their support to it. Which is correct?

Is it true that many radio/TV stations in the DC and Baltimore region are so scared of Dave Hughes and DCRTV that not only do they not allow their employees access to the site at work but won't allow their employees to send emails to Dave, even at home? I heard Clear Channel is one of them. To me that sounds a bit paranoid.

About 3 years ago I was having lunch with a PD of a radio station in Virginia. He was telling me that most of the mail that appears on the DCRTV in the mailbag was actually fake and was written by Dave himself. He says thats one reason why DCRTV doesn't include the publishing of email address along side the message in the mailbag.

He was also saying that DCRTV has a "Taboo" list. A list of stations that DCRTV for one reason or another won't mention. I don't buy that. How can station prevent a website from mentioning them?

 

[Media_Man]

Unknown. I got another question for you though, I recently relocated down here for a new job and was curious about local tv news. Which station is the news leader? NBC4, Fox5, ABC7 or CBS9? Which one is 2nd, 3rd and in last place? I have tried to find out, but can't get a straight answer.

 

[Radio-X]

Even though I haven't lived in NoVA in about 10 years, I still read DCRTV every day here in S.C.

Dave has a good site with DCRTV. I prefer VARTV's layout and low-key presentation, however...plus VARTV covers all of VA. Mr. Corbin's stuff on VARTV is totally honest as well...very little "rumors" without some evidence behind it. VARTV.com has been my homepage for probably 5+ years.

My only gripe(s) with DCRTV are the constant bashing of WMAL and the Washington Post along with the constant "support DCRTV" stuff...but it is indeed a free capitalistic country, eh?

All in all...DCRTV is a good site. DC should be lucky that it has such a robust media website.

Radio-X

 

[media buyer]

Personally I think DCRTV is a waste of bandwidth... they often run with a rumor that simply isn't true... and while he's happy to crow about his "hits"... he'll never retract and say "I was wrong"...but as for the assertion that all of the mailbag posts are made up... don't think so. If you check out the mail bag the first line of the first paragraph has a contact link. So in fact, your PD friend was wrong (a simple fact you could have checked for yourself) I'm no fan of DCRTV (and yes, I read it... the same way I watch Entertainment Tonight every evening and carp about how it's "garbage"!) but to accuse him of "making up e-mail" posts is ludicrous.

 

[NewsNow]

I think what was meant by the e-mail contact comment was that the e-mail addy of each individual mailbag post isn't included, which makes sense. Hardly anybody would comment if they knew their identity or e-mail would be shown.

VARTV is a much cleaner, well put together site, but the entirety of the Va markets aren't as large as DC, so there isn't nearly the volume of information.

Prudent radio managers put the kybosh on any staff posting to a web site (including this one) with opinions on the radio business, but surely most know that many radio people do anonymously.

As far as DRTV itself, I know it is widely read, but it the rumors are mostly what Dave would like to see happen, or are as obvious as the nose on your face (WTWP to flip, WMAL is right wing). I've never been able to use DCRTV to any advantage for my own career, nor have I ever gotten any replies to an opening I posted in his classifieds. Anybody who "fears" DCRTV is crazy. It's a radio geek page for radio geeks like us. It gets read by DC radio people.

 

[mleach]

Personally I think DCRTV is a waste of bandwidth... they often run with a rumor that simply isn't true... and while he's happy to crow about his "hits"... he'll never retract and say "I was wrong"...but as for the assertion that all of the mailbag posts are made up... don't think so. If you check out the mail bag the first line of the first paragraph has a contact link. So in fact, your PD friend was wrong (a simple fact you could have checked for yourself) I'm no fan of DCRTV (and yes, I read it... the same way I watch Entertainment Tonight every evening and carp about how it's "garbage"!) but to accuse him of "making up e-mail" posts is ludicrous.

I also doubt that the emails on dcrtv are fake. Maybe he did this practice back in the early days of that site just to well recruit emails but I doubt he does it now. And even if he did I doubt Dave Hughes would admit to it, just like the reporting of rumors that turned out to be nothing more than that, rumors.

I have noticed a few times where some stories don't quite make it to dcrtv while similar stories of the same thing do. I remember a few years back when a disc jockey at Winchester's WINC-FM , Jason Taylor was busted for having sex with a teenage girl. That never made it to dcrtv even though it was front page news in the two Winchester papers. Yet at the same time he was running stuff on his site about the sex rumors in regards to Bill Kamal when he was at WUSA channel 9, none of these rumors I dont think were ever confirmed. I do know that WUSA has always been quiet as to exactly why they fired Kamal. Maybe there was an agreement between WINC and dcrtv, not to run that story there. I don't know.

Then there was Jamie Singleton from WSLS in Roanoke. The weatherman who was fired when a nude pic of him appeared online. That story appeared on dcrtv. Yet a similar thing happened with an announcer in the Hagerstown market at the exact same time. That story did not make it to dcrtv. Not to say that Dave knows nothing about it. I knew a few who sent emails to dcrtv about it and none of those emails made it to the mailbag even though unlike the Singleton pic which was deleted soon after it was posted online and few actually saw it, the Hagerstown pics from what I heard are still online today.

I don't believe that there are many stations out there who actually "fear" dcrtv, but I doubt there are many out there either who would be willing to allow their employees to openly run a site like dcrtv. Thats a conflict of interest. I remember Dave Hughes himself made the same claim on dcrtv. Michael Popovec who used to run esrtv recently landed a gig at a station on Maryland's Eastern Shore. I was very surprised when Dave said "No word on whether Popovec will ever resume his ESRTV Eastern Shore radio news column for DCRTV....." Well Dave unless Popovec gives up his radio job, I doubt he ever will.