I was going to wait two weeks, but since there is a retrospective of sorts at the other board, why not..
To be perfectly honest, I thought the 'college years' of the Big show, 1991-1999 where some of the best.....but if those where the college years, 2000-2010 where the emmy years. some of the best quotable moments in the shows history from 'the Marina', to 'the shallack am shot?' to classic phone scams like Turkey day and 'if you say anything more about my father, I WILLll kick your ass!"
we also had GREAT brad blanks moments and contests that will long go down in radio history (the almost 1 hour 30 minute billy and elton contest where that song still sends 'come on' chills down my spine) like Beat the Brucer and Proffessor Math.
Somewhere around 2011, though, is where things started to take a turn for the worse. I was never a fan of modern music heard on PLJ. As a guy who's never had a single romance, romance and breakup songs just don't do it for me, and this was all PLJ played. add to that songs that sounded so bland, that when they played a groups biggest 5 hits, they all sounded like one song...well, I stopped paying attention to the music long ago....and the one or two original sounding songs I DID like, Mambo number 5 for instance, got so over played, people got sick of it fast and it vanished into history.
Just like the Fun of the Big Show for me. Around 2011, I noticed a few things...For one, scott got slower, less interested. He seemed to repeat things todd said like he said it the first time, and it was kidn of shocking to witness the decline in caring from a guy who lived, eat, and breathed radio. Todd, on the other hand, started to get a little meaner. most noteably toward joe. joe's divorce was a topic of heated discussion at one point..and it was very clear joe did not want to walk about it. yet todd kept on bringing it up anyway, with scott reluctantly joining in. FF a few years later, Bills divorce never got brought up once..so it makes you wonder.
It was around 2012 that this loyal big show listener was about ready to throw in the towel. The show was no longer what it once was. remotes had gone down to nill. breaks had gotten a bit shorter. Brad was gone, patty was gone, joe was about to leave for greener pastures...and scott sounded like he'd rather be anywhere else. only loyalty kept me listening after joe left..and if it wasn't for communication with some of the DJS, I would have been as shocked as the regular listeners where when he was gone in January.
Then began the terrible reign of McKay. someone who made joe look like a timely saint. he was never on time for traffic reports. sometimes we heard him doing tail WABC ones. he never updated his info (I was stuck on a major NJ roadway for 40 minutes, never mentioned once).... he focused mostly on NY.....CT, NJ, and the shore where all but forgotten...and he had the hokiest of sayings that even a college radio station wouldn't do....he loved rhyming, for instance. the listeners hated it. perhaps the biggest annoying change was he started doing two traffic tags. most times longer than the actual traffic itself.
Around this time, I had all but given up hope on having a fun big show to listen too. As a listener, I knew it was time for a change..
That change came as a shock in February. Woke up to scott announcing his 'retirement'. As someone who I'd thought would die behind the mic, this was totally un expected. But at the same time, not....deep down in your brain, you thought something like this was coming..either a total show cancellation or someone leaving. I just didn't expect it to be scott.
Was I Excited for the Todd show? kind of. I knew the type of show that Todd did when he went solo. THAT show was fun, energetic, and engaged the audience far more than your typical scott show..so I THOUGHT I knew what to expect. Boy, was I wrong.....
first thing we hear, was a long 5 minute or so speech by Todd saying how he's going to 'change radio'... problem one right there. IF you've been listening to the same show, you don't WANT change after 23 years. we got introduced to some new characters, all under the age of 30(maybe 25?). Annie, the new co host...Sheila, the social media person..Fitz the production guy, and what would soon be known as the worst of the bunch....meatballs...
Lets delve into him for a minute. Brad Blanks was a GREAT street reporter. He had a knack for making things interesting and finding just the right people to talk to that would be a good fit for the show. he was also feerless, and wasn't afraid to do anything for the show so long as it fit. Although I think 21 miles in an elmo suit ruined him for that
. Meatballs was none of that. He did not have a radio voice. he spoke LOUD and if you where listening with headsets, it hurt your ears. And when they FINALLY put him out on the street, his reports either ended with him being drunk, thrown out of a place, assulted, or nearly arrested. from sneaking on to a secure movie set, to getting into a fist fight at a bar trying to interview people. It was so bad, it wasn't even those 'so awful it's funny' type of bads. this was the first segment of the show I started skipping, and thankfully they fired meatballs in June, although long after I stopped listening....
Lets get back to the format of the show. it started out long form. 12 minute breaks... 5-8 minutes of commercials and music. in the begining, it focused on talk. Which WOULD have been great, except for the topics they chose to discuss. Where as PLJ knew it had a mostly women audience listening, they didn't devote fully to it. Now? I felt like I was listening to a female call in talk show. From topics of bra fittings, to all women having the period at the same time (as the alpha woman of the group), to the main thing that finally got me stopped....OBGYN and Papshmere talk at 7AM. Ad to that the annoyingly fake laughter, where every joke has to be laughed at and gone is the pregnant pause to let the audience at home laugh...and people talking over each other......well, this loyal listener just couldn't take it anymore, and I finally dropped PLJ from all social media and preset dials......As, it turns out, so did the majority of their audience... I later found out through friend postings that todd even went into political areas and religious areas on his show (bashing people who didn't believe in god, because, well, how could anyone not, really?) seems like I made the right decision...
Flashback to March. Scotts new show on CBS. With Scott being reunited with Joe, THIS is where I started to get goosebumps..although considering how he left PLJ, I was a little worried about tension. thankfully a facebook post cleared all that up, and on that first show, with the awesome radio history dial scan bit (no long droning DJ talking for five minutes!)....all those worries about how the two would get along went away. You could actually hear the emotion and smile in scotts voice as he first went on the air...and it became even more evident with how relaxed he sounded as the weeks went by. Just having scott and joe together on CBS, where the 50-s80s music that I love was being played and I don't have to skip that to get to the talk I loved.....was a breath of fresh air. Even better, there was no reason to miss todd, because whoever he had doing the new parody songs and skits was doing just as great, or better a job.
The fun in Radio listening was back...and the show was better than ever. I was esctatic to hear Brad return....and we got an update on his life (now with three kids!).... and eventually, even Patty returned! (although secretly I was hoping for Naomi!). Scott was smart enough to realize that in order to draw people away from the old station, he had to reunite the old crew as well. Add to that, he was playing the old music he used to spin at Z100, and you had a trifecta of old listeners coming back int othe fold, and that helped bring CBS back to #1.
You had great discussions like a CBS employee getting hit by an over turned porta pottie in the parking lot, to the great MR.G show stopping moments, to 'If you think you're going to have a stroke' flubs.. the show was back to it's hey dey of being funny again....and sounding better than ever. (at least until the sales guys started throwing more sponsor things into it ;o)).
Who would have thought, 15 years later, CBS FM would turn into PLJ 2...and this time, be #1 rather than a steady #11-12? I just hope the show has another ten years in it before scott is fully ready to retire for good..Cause it's going to be a great ride!
Meanwhile, considering all the things we've learned that Todd has pulled at PLJ (including rumored to have gotten scott fired)...I hope his show doesn't make the New year.....and he's forced to go back to buffalo with it's 7 feet of snow. couldn't happen to a 'nicer' guy. as a listener, I'm almost ashamed I bought into the nice guy act for so long. seems he's totally miserable when he's not 'on'....
To be perfectly honest, I thought the 'college years' of the Big show, 1991-1999 where some of the best.....but if those where the college years, 2000-2010 where the emmy years. some of the best quotable moments in the shows history from 'the Marina', to 'the shallack am shot?' to classic phone scams like Turkey day and 'if you say anything more about my father, I WILLll kick your ass!"
we also had GREAT brad blanks moments and contests that will long go down in radio history (the almost 1 hour 30 minute billy and elton contest where that song still sends 'come on' chills down my spine) like Beat the Brucer and Proffessor Math.
Somewhere around 2011, though, is where things started to take a turn for the worse. I was never a fan of modern music heard on PLJ. As a guy who's never had a single romance, romance and breakup songs just don't do it for me, and this was all PLJ played. add to that songs that sounded so bland, that when they played a groups biggest 5 hits, they all sounded like one song...well, I stopped paying attention to the music long ago....and the one or two original sounding songs I DID like, Mambo number 5 for instance, got so over played, people got sick of it fast and it vanished into history.
Just like the Fun of the Big Show for me. Around 2011, I noticed a few things...For one, scott got slower, less interested. He seemed to repeat things todd said like he said it the first time, and it was kidn of shocking to witness the decline in caring from a guy who lived, eat, and breathed radio. Todd, on the other hand, started to get a little meaner. most noteably toward joe. joe's divorce was a topic of heated discussion at one point..and it was very clear joe did not want to walk about it. yet todd kept on bringing it up anyway, with scott reluctantly joining in. FF a few years later, Bills divorce never got brought up once..so it makes you wonder.
It was around 2012 that this loyal big show listener was about ready to throw in the towel. The show was no longer what it once was. remotes had gone down to nill. breaks had gotten a bit shorter. Brad was gone, patty was gone, joe was about to leave for greener pastures...and scott sounded like he'd rather be anywhere else. only loyalty kept me listening after joe left..and if it wasn't for communication with some of the DJS, I would have been as shocked as the regular listeners where when he was gone in January.
Then began the terrible reign of McKay. someone who made joe look like a timely saint. he was never on time for traffic reports. sometimes we heard him doing tail WABC ones. he never updated his info (I was stuck on a major NJ roadway for 40 minutes, never mentioned once).... he focused mostly on NY.....CT, NJ, and the shore where all but forgotten...and he had the hokiest of sayings that even a college radio station wouldn't do....he loved rhyming, for instance. the listeners hated it. perhaps the biggest annoying change was he started doing two traffic tags. most times longer than the actual traffic itself.
Around this time, I had all but given up hope on having a fun big show to listen too. As a listener, I knew it was time for a change..
That change came as a shock in February. Woke up to scott announcing his 'retirement'. As someone who I'd thought would die behind the mic, this was totally un expected. But at the same time, not....deep down in your brain, you thought something like this was coming..either a total show cancellation or someone leaving. I just didn't expect it to be scott.
Was I Excited for the Todd show? kind of. I knew the type of show that Todd did when he went solo. THAT show was fun, energetic, and engaged the audience far more than your typical scott show..so I THOUGHT I knew what to expect. Boy, was I wrong.....
first thing we hear, was a long 5 minute or so speech by Todd saying how he's going to 'change radio'... problem one right there. IF you've been listening to the same show, you don't WANT change after 23 years. we got introduced to some new characters, all under the age of 30(maybe 25?). Annie, the new co host...Sheila, the social media person..Fitz the production guy, and what would soon be known as the worst of the bunch....meatballs...
Lets delve into him for a minute. Brad Blanks was a GREAT street reporter. He had a knack for making things interesting and finding just the right people to talk to that would be a good fit for the show. he was also feerless, and wasn't afraid to do anything for the show so long as it fit. Although I think 21 miles in an elmo suit ruined him for that
. Meatballs was none of that. He did not have a radio voice. he spoke LOUD and if you where listening with headsets, it hurt your ears. And when they FINALLY put him out on the street, his reports either ended with him being drunk, thrown out of a place, assulted, or nearly arrested. from sneaking on to a secure movie set, to getting into a fist fight at a bar trying to interview people. It was so bad, it wasn't even those 'so awful it's funny' type of bads. this was the first segment of the show I started skipping, and thankfully they fired meatballs in June, although long after I stopped listening....Lets get back to the format of the show. it started out long form. 12 minute breaks... 5-8 minutes of commercials and music. in the begining, it focused on talk. Which WOULD have been great, except for the topics they chose to discuss. Where as PLJ knew it had a mostly women audience listening, they didn't devote fully to it. Now? I felt like I was listening to a female call in talk show. From topics of bra fittings, to all women having the period at the same time (as the alpha woman of the group), to the main thing that finally got me stopped....OBGYN and Papshmere talk at 7AM. Ad to that the annoyingly fake laughter, where every joke has to be laughed at and gone is the pregnant pause to let the audience at home laugh...and people talking over each other......well, this loyal listener just couldn't take it anymore, and I finally dropped PLJ from all social media and preset dials......As, it turns out, so did the majority of their audience... I later found out through friend postings that todd even went into political areas and religious areas on his show (bashing people who didn't believe in god, because, well, how could anyone not, really?) seems like I made the right decision...
Flashback to March. Scotts new show on CBS. With Scott being reunited with Joe, THIS is where I started to get goosebumps..although considering how he left PLJ, I was a little worried about tension. thankfully a facebook post cleared all that up, and on that first show, with the awesome radio history dial scan bit (no long droning DJ talking for five minutes!)....all those worries about how the two would get along went away. You could actually hear the emotion and smile in scotts voice as he first went on the air...and it became even more evident with how relaxed he sounded as the weeks went by. Just having scott and joe together on CBS, where the 50-s80s music that I love was being played and I don't have to skip that to get to the talk I loved.....was a breath of fresh air. Even better, there was no reason to miss todd, because whoever he had doing the new parody songs and skits was doing just as great, or better a job.
The fun in Radio listening was back...and the show was better than ever. I was esctatic to hear Brad return....and we got an update on his life (now with three kids!).... and eventually, even Patty returned! (although secretly I was hoping for Naomi!). Scott was smart enough to realize that in order to draw people away from the old station, he had to reunite the old crew as well. Add to that, he was playing the old music he used to spin at Z100, and you had a trifecta of old listeners coming back int othe fold, and that helped bring CBS back to #1.
You had great discussions like a CBS employee getting hit by an over turned porta pottie in the parking lot, to the great MR.G show stopping moments, to 'If you think you're going to have a stroke' flubs.. the show was back to it's hey dey of being funny again....and sounding better than ever. (at least until the sales guys started throwing more sponsor things into it ;o)).
Who would have thought, 15 years later, CBS FM would turn into PLJ 2...and this time, be #1 rather than a steady #11-12? I just hope the show has another ten years in it before scott is fully ready to retire for good..Cause it's going to be a great ride!
Meanwhile, considering all the things we've learned that Todd has pulled at PLJ (including rumored to have gotten scott fired)...I hope his show doesn't make the New year.....and he's forced to go back to buffalo with it's 7 feet of snow. couldn't happen to a 'nicer' guy. as a listener, I'm almost ashamed I bought into the nice guy act for so long. seems he's totally miserable when he's not 'on'....
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