Radio Hall of Famer and syndicated talk show icon Jim Bohannon reports from Los Angeles on R&R's Talk Radio Seminar 2009:"Larry King barely showed up on time for his Career Excellence Award (little league game) but arrived, coatless with jeans and of course suspenders, to repeat several of his favorite stories for the crowd. Among the award winners, Glenn Beck was Syndicated Personality of the Year; Tom Langmyer of WGN, Chicago won General Manager of the year; and Robin Bertolucci of KFI, Los Angeles, was Program Director of the year. An interesting aside: Larry King now claims 40,000 interviews in his 52 year career. Assuming he works 5 nights a week, 48 weeks a year, that would come to 3.2 interviews a night over that span."
Jeffrey Yorke R&R: King accepted his award, posed for an official picture, then dashed out of the banquet room dodging an admiring crowd. One disappointed autograph seeker wondered, "Why the hurry?" and another voice offered, "That sultry voice, she must have called back."
CB: As he bolted Larry was overheard on his cell phone oozing, "What are you wearing?"
CB notes Air America hosted a "Celebrity Cocktail Party" Friday night with "Celebrity appearances byJesse Carmichael, Fran Drescher, Adrian Grenier, Melissa Fitzgerald, Deidre Hall, Lili Haydn, Montel Williams, Daphne Zuniga."
Before the cocktail party the self-absorbed Rita Cosby with the most annoying pipes ever to disgrace the Earth's airwaves moderated a panel on "Who Says Life's Fair? The Fairness Doctrine Debate." Should've been billed "A Fairness Doctrine Debate." Two Republican congressmen were on the panel as well as liberal talker Stephanie Miller and conservative Rush Limbaugh fill-in Roger Hedgecock.
Could you stomach Rita Cosby and Fran Drescher in the same room? I knew there was a reason the Universe prevented me from going to this thing...
Before the cocktail party the self-absorbed Rita Cosby with the most annoying pipes ever to disgrace the Earth's airwaves moderated a panel on "Who Says Life's Fair? The Fairness Doctrine Debate." Should've been billed "A Fairness Doctrine Debate." Two Republican congressmen were on the panel as well as liberal talker Stephanie Miller and conservative Rush Limbaugh fill-in Roger Hedgecock.
Could you stomach Rita Cosby and Fran Drescher in the same room? I knew there was a reason the Universe prevented me from going to this thing...
I wonder if larry king has worked out an exit strategy yet from, bradcasting, marrying women 1/3rd his age, and the planet yet?
ReplyDeleteMarty
ReplyDeleteDoes Larry's wife have an eating disorder? She look emaciated.
Yeah, she's got something. I'd heard reports about her disturbing weight loss.
ReplyDeleteBobcat: Larry's deathly afraid of death... Like how could the planet manage without his presence...
can you imaghine the old guy smell eminating from dude? yuk.
ReplyDeleteNow at second glance looks like wifey-poo need a few weeks at the Michelle Obama Boot Camp for Women who Want to Wear Sleeveless Dresses.
ReplyDeleteDrop and give me twenty girl! And stop hanging with men the age of your grandfather.
Things I've learned so far at the talk radio convention:
ReplyDelete1. Talk radio people sure love to discuss everything except what really matters. I would think that the significant cutbacks in radio employment would be way up there on the list of top-of-mind subjects for discussion, but the first panel was all about... actually, I'm not sure, other than that it involved a long argument about whether talk radio causes hate crimes or cancer or something. This was perversely entertaining in a way, if only briefly, but it ended up depressing me about the business. They're arguing about the color of the wallpaper while the house is on fire. Someone also said that despite the dire financial situation of many radio groups, it's likely that the same people running the show today will be running the show a year from now, so you have that to look forward to.
2. As expected, the crowd keeps getting thinner. Those cutbacks might have something to do with that. The economy in general might have more to do with that; it's hard for a lot of people to get to conventions, especially when the company won't pay for it anymore. And in 2009, it would seem to me that you could do everything they do on convention panels online and save everyone the expense. But there's one thing that conventions are good for, and that one thing is....
3. The best reason to come to a convention is to meet people face-to-face. It's networking, it's putting faces to names, it's spending time with people you might see once a year. ("Hey, that guy's one of my Facebook friends! Maybe I should go meet him for the first time!") That's the value of conventions, which leads me to think that everyone is missing the boat here. Forget the panels; they're always the same, and many aren't worth the time. Just replace all the panels with cocktail parties. I'm serious. The cocktail parties are where you get to meet new people and renew old acquaintances and talk and exchange business cards and make deals and schmooze. Plus, there's an open bar and munchies. I see no downside to this.
4. If you didn't eat enough of the munchies and you're driving home from the convention and you're still hungry, and you're, say, on Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance and you think, hey, there's a Del Taco drive-thru, and you drive in and order a Classic Chicken Burrito Combo with fries and you pull over and put ketchup on the fries, whatever you do, make sure that the packet is indeed ketchup and not, for the sake of argument, hot sauce.
5. A Classic Chicken Burrito Combo with fries accidentally doused in hot sauce is not a wise choice for eating less than an hour before you go to bed. I've done the research on this.
While you read this, I'll be attending more panel discussions. Friday's agenda includes a panel on how and where to find new talent (for what? Who's hiring?), a panel on how to listen to your station more effectively (what is this "listen to your station" of which you speak? Do PDs have time to listen to their own stations anymore?), and a Fairness Doctrine debate, because, you know, nobody already knows every single Fairness Doctrine argument. I will listen to all of it, and then someone from the hotel staff will tap me on the shoulder to let me know they're closing up the room and it's time for me to go home. And I will then go home, energized about the unlimited possibilities in the talk radio business, or not. I hope I remember not to stop for the Classic Chicken Burrito Combo with fries.
While I do that, you can still get all the fodder you need for your show at Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports. Despite the convention interruption, the column has even more topics than ever for your talkin' needs, including the one about George Clooney-flavored tofu, New Jersey's proposed Brazilian wax ban, the UroClub, a couch with a free cat inside, Stewart vs. Cramer, and, oh, lots more, which I don't have time to recount here because I'm running late and it's an hour drive in traffic to get to the convention. Don't forget to check out "10 Questions With..." K-News/Palm Springs host Mark Christopher and the rest of All Access with all the industry news and resources you'll ever need, all free.
And don't forget to sign up for All Access Twitter and text message updates, too. You'll also find me at twitter.com/pmsimon, where I'll be posting messages from the convention. Most will probably involve some variant of "help!" or "send beer."
Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
The above was sent to me by Rita Rich of Rita Rich Media Services.
ReplyDeleteForget the "old guy smell," Random Dude. What about the persistent rumors about Larry King's terminal fart attacks?
ReplyDeleteThey are NOT rumors. But I didn't say this. My evil twin did. And that's a pretty fair summary of the R&R/TRS above.
ReplyDeletemarty, the farting is just a bonus!
ReplyDelete