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Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category

Just About Done With Howard Stern

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Today begins the second straight week of vacation for Howard Stern and his SIRIUS Satellite Radio crew. I’m just about done with this guy and his completely ridiculous schedule. I’ve said on this blog before that Howard used to be the voice of the working man and now he works a 4-day per week, 4-hour per day work schedule where he pretty much gets an additional week off each month. The voice of the working man? I think not.

One of my friends made the comment the other day that you can tell in Howard’s voice how he doesn’t even want to be there any more and I couldn’t agree more. The shows have been lacking lately, though I will give him credit because every once in a long while he hits a home run (usually something that has to do with Artie and his disastrous health). There are a few issues that confuse me about Howard and his current deal, though…

For example, SIRIUS Satellite Radio ran a promotion to get new subscribers this spring leading into the summer months where their announcer clearly said, “And you won’t want to miss Howard Stern this summer!” Really? We won’t want to miss Howard this summer? Because I’m pretty sure that he’s only worked like two or three, 4-day work weeks this summer (that’s 8 to 12 days).

Also, how can the higher-ups at SIRIUS Satellite Radio justify the $100 million per year expense on this guy when he works such a reduced schedule? I understand that the $100 million is to be used for his channels in addition to his salary, but when the company is on the verge of losing a talent like Bubba the Love Sponge, you have to wonder why so much money is funneled into The Howard Stern Show when it clearly is not using the money correctly (why don’t their microphones ever work right the first time).

Speaking of money, don’t tell me that Stern isn’t bringing in a ton of excess income on his channels. Subscribers to this commercial-free service are treated to frequent 10 - 15 minute non-live content breaks during the show. In other words, we get propaganda from the Howard 100 News team, commercials, and full-length songs (which is incredibly insulting considering the dozens upon dozens of music channels that are truly commercial free). Some of that money can be spread around, you know.

Anyway, it’s ridiculous that Stern is floating by on a contract that is designed for someone to NOT float by. I hope Mel Karmazin reigns this guy in because with his current attitude, the ridiculous amount of commercials, and his current schedule, Stern may actually be hurting the satellite radio movement more than helping it.

In-Movie/Show Commercials

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Is there anything more annoying than a commercial that pops up on the bottom of your television screen while you’re watching a movie or a show? You can see this marketing debacle all over network TV, but the biggest offender these days has got to be TBS and their shameless promotion of the Bill Engvall Show.

Forget about just sitting back and watching an episode of Family Guy any more. The marketing geniuses at TBS actually PAUSE the show to allow Bill Engvall to talk for 15 seconds about his new show. Then the bastards have the unmitigated gall to say, “Back to the show,” before the show unpauses and we get literally 2 seconds of crap before going to commercial. If TBS was ever looking for a way to get their fans to hate them - they found it!

This is a horrible trend and I hope some television executives get a chance to read this post because this BS has to end…now!

I Can’t Believe Spain Won! Euphoria!

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Apparently Spain won the Euro Cup 1-0 over Germany. Or Eurocup. Maybe it is the EuroCup. Whatever. That’s terrific. And I’m glad that the soccer people enjoyed it. I take issue, however, with the way in which the entire tournament was presented by ESPN to the American public. Prior to this year, I didn’t even know the EuroCup existed. Frankly, I’d like to keep it that way.

ESPN and ABC Sports broadcast the games and subsequently used SportsCenter to present the soccer tournament as if it was the most important thing to American sporting enthusiasts. The games didn’t even envolve America in any capacity. Yes, I know, soccer is a great game and you just have to try it and it is so fascinating and all of that shit. Great. I’m glad a small portion of people enjoyed the games, I’m sure you really went wild when that one goal was scored over 3.5 hours- but that doesn’t mean that I should have to sit and watch six minutes of highlights proceeded by 4 minutes of analysis by some British guy because ESPN wants good ratings for games that, to the vast majority of the American public, are meaningless.

The fact of the matter is, I, nor could most people name a single player that participated in the entire tournament. Is there still a Ronaldo out there? Was he in it? A word to ESPN, just because you decided to climb into bed with FIFA doesn’t mean you have to shove it down the viewing public’s throats like it was the fucking Super Bowl. Enough already.