Posted on 12/06/2008 8:52:33 PM PST by raccoonradio
Howie thread for the week; I'll post his column once it goes up on Herald site.
looks like the Blago story bumped PETA till tomorrow.
UPCOMING GUESTS
December 10
Bruce Freidrich from PETA will join us for our annual “Why eating turkeys or the Christmas goose is bad” hour....want to go vegetarian? (You can also call 1-888-VEG FOOD (note, it is not 1-800)).
Wed column ping
King Con Blago puts our hacks to shame
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, December 10, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
You know that proposal to change back the law on open Senate seats in Massachusetts so the governor gets the right to fill any vacancy - never mind!
Even the dimmest hack in the Legislature would not want to be recorded as voting in favor of what would now be known as the “Blagojevich bill.” The ink was barely dry on the criminal complaint yesterday before Sen. Dick Durbin was demanding the Illinois Assembly change their state’s Senate succession law to make it like ours - with a special election within 60 days.
Sorry, Deval. Your homeboy’s messed it up big time for you. He might as well have put Barack’s Senate seat up for sale on eBay. Those North Side guys can’t do anything right - just ask Al Capone.
We in Boston take such great pride in our municipal corruption, but we are mere pikers compared to this “crime spree,” as the U.S. attorney described it. Illinois’ big-time crooked governors trump our small-time crooked House speakers. Obama said he wanted to hit the ground running - who knew he was talking about scandals? And by the way, how can the Democrats call Patrick Fitzgerald a hack? How can they accuse this prosecutor of a political vendetta? This is the guy who convicted Scooter Libby.
Do you think U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald has job security in the new Democrat administration?
What a difference between Boston and Chicago. We have a state senator who stuffs cash into her bra; they have a governor putting a U.S. Senate seat out for bids.
In Chicago, it’s “pay to play.” In Boston, it’s “pay to Playtex.”
This guy Blagojevich - did you see him at the window factory in Chicago on Monday with the laid-off workers? Black turtleneck, black leather jacket. He looked like Joe Pesci as Tony “the Ant” Spilotro in “Casino.”
Memo to Gov. Blagojevich: Dress like the governor, not like the governor’s bagman.
This guy is an embarrassment. Forget Abe Lincoln rolling over in his grave - Sal DiMasi and John Rogers are stunned by his shocking lack of professionalism. This is so bad even Blago’s fellow Crook County Democrats kicked him to the curb like he was . . . a Republican.
Don’t make no waves, don’t back no losers. Those are the rules in Chicago, and Blago broke ’em.
I was in Chicago last month, and everyone was speculating how soon the governor would be indicted. Everybody knew, but Blagojevich just kept wheeling and dealing, with his office bugged, throwing out more f-bombs than Larry Baione when he was drunk with Ralphie Chong on North Margin Street. Blago wondered aloud whether he would have more juice as an indicted senator than as indicted governor. He schemed to have editorial writers fired from a dying newspaper that just went into bankruptcy.
Editorial writers!
Last question: Who will be the first con pardoned by President Obama? Too late to get in a bet in Vegas - that one’s off the board.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1137965
Wed show ping.
Chuck Turner: Hey, they may have faked that photo of me
taking that bribe—
http://bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1138143&pos=breaking
The PETA guy, finally?
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10
1st Hour
2nd Hour—Bruce Freidrich from PETA will join us for our annual “Why eating turkeys or the Christmas goose is bad” hour....want to go vegetarian? (You can also call 1-888-VEG FOOD (note, it is not 1-800)).
3rd Hour—CHUMP LINE!!! Call 617-779-3469 and leave Howie or Sandy a message about the show or the goings on of the day and we may play it back on the air!
4th Hour
WRKO related ping
WRKO stays tuned in to Tom Finneran
Poor ratings don’t stop 2009 contract
By Jessica Heslam / MediaBiz | Thursday, December 11, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Despite lousy ratings over the past two years, WRKO radio has extended Tom Finneran’s morning-drive show for another year, the station confirmed last night.
Finneran had inked a two-year deal with an option to extend it another year and the station has exercised that option, said WRKO-AM (680) program director Jason Wolfe.
Sources say the station is keeping Finneran around because they want to make a play for WTKK-FM (96.9) duo Jim Braude and Margery Eagan and are waiting for their contract to run out. The pair is under contract with competing WTKK for at least another year.
While Finneran’s name has gotten WRKO a lot of publicity, his program has yet to break into the top 10 local radio shows in that critical time slot.
Since it debuted in February 2007, Finneran’s show has floundered in 15th and 16th place among the coveted 25- to 54-year-old listeners. One of his better ratings books was last spring, when his show placed 14th with a 2.4 share in that demographic. The show has fallen as low as 18th place.
The fall ratings period, which ended yesterday and included the November election, could decide Finneran’s future in radio beyond next year. Finneran appears to be readying for his next gig and launched his own lobbying business earlier this year.
WRKO has propped up the ex-pol with a roster of rotating co-hosts and the current lineup includes Wendy Murphy, Todd Feinburg, Warren Tolman, Holly Robichaud and Mariellen Burns. Sources say Feinburg could be made Finneran’s permanent co-host next year.
Marjorie Clapprood, another co-host, hasn’t been on the show since last month after being told that the station wanted to try something different and mix it up.
Finneran’s lack of listeners isn’t WRKO’s only problem. The New York Stock Exchange is threatening to delist station owner Entercom because the company’s stock price has plunged below a dollar.
Finneran didn’t return a call.
“Sources say the station is keeping Finneran around because they want to make a play for WTKK-FM (96.9) duo Jim Braude and Margery Eagan and are waiting for their contract to run out. The pair is under contract with competing WTKK for at least another year”
Moonbats in the Morning? Ugh!
The Radio Hall of Fame, which just inducted Howie, is part of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. It’s headed by Bruce
Dumont, who personally called Howie on-air earlier this year
to inform him of his induction. Gov Blago promised funding for a new HQ for radio hall of fame, etc. but it never came—
politics involved? See below (also note that the RHOF
inducted James Dobson/Focus on Family as well this year,
a very controversial decision [note though that the _public_
voted in Dobson!]), another reason Blago probably wouldn’t
support giving funding to MBC/RHOF...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2146938/posts
Geez, bring back Clapprood and Whitley while you’re at it!
(Though the article says that Marge probably won’t be part
of the FelonMan morning show anymore...)
There was a time when Clapprood had a Sunday night show on
Lifetime and I noted at the time that “on Sunday nights,
your TV actually has TWO raspy voiced, big-haired Marges...”
(the other being Mrs. Homer Simpson :) )
just in
http://bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1138420&pos=breaking
Feds subpoena Chuck Turner’s wife
By Edward Mason | Thursday, December 11, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics
The wife of indicted City Councilor Chuck Turner has been subpoenaed, possibly as part of a federal corruption probe into alleged bribery in Boston.
Terri Small-Turner was subpoenaed in her capacity as treasurer of her husband’s City Council campaign committee, according to a press release from Turner’s campaign.
Small-Turner was asked to turn over all campaign documents for the past four years, the statement reads.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office could not be immediately reached.
Turner, 68, pleaded not guilty yesterday to conspiracy, extortion and false statement charges connected to an alleged bid to receive cash in exchange for securing a liquor license for a Roxbury nightclub owner.
Turner yesterday told the Herald the photos released by the FBI to the media allegedly showing him taking cash may have been “doctored.” He also said the $1,000 the feds charge was a bribe may have been an excessive campaign contribution.
Tuner’s campaign committee released the news of his wife being subpoenaed in advance of a press conference tomorrow at the federal courthouse in Boston.
OMG! How pathetic do you have to be that Warren Tolman is considered a "prop"???? ;-)
Fri column ping. btw yesterday Howie said if you want a good book about Chicago politics, focusing on Mayor Daley (the
first one), check out “Boss” by the late Mike Royko. Actually I did wind up borrowing a copy of that from the library
the other day, and am almost done with it.
South Boston hacks cash in on conventional wisdom
By Howie Carr | Friday, December 12, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Did someone say “nationwide search”?
Today the Hack Hotline peruses the latest public payroll to be posted on the Herald Web site - that of the Mass. Convention Center Authority (MCCA).
The executive director of the MCCA is Jim Rooney, who makes a mere $369,292 a year. Thank God he doesn’t have to survive just on that, though - he also collects a $70,000 annual pension from the MBTA, where he put in his “full” 23 years before retiring.
There are three other Rooneys on the MCCA payroll, but surprisingly, only one of them is Rooney’s brother. That would be Joe Rooney, a maintenance systems manager making $70,609 a year. When Joe Rooney was hired by the MCCA in May 2004, his brother Jim was not the executive director - he was the acting executive director.
Whew, that’s a load off.
The MCCA flack e-mailed me: “Please note that Joe Rooney is a brain injury survivor . . . There are two management levels between Joe Rooney and the Executive Director.”
The MCCA has always been a Southie hackerama, and the congressman from Southie is Steve Lynch. Lynch used to have an aide named Fred Peterson. Would you care to guess where Fred Peterson is now employed? That’s right. He is the “deputy coo,” whatever that means, for $119,467. Well, coo-coo-ka-choo.
The only mayor ever to come from South Boston was Ray Flynn, and he used to have a coatholder named Ken Sinkiewicz. Kenny migrated from City Hall and now makes $143,276 a year as “deputy director.”
The current mayor is Mumbles Menino, and his top political aide is one Mike Kineavy, who made $141,778.89 last year. Mike’s 70-something mom Ann is on the MCCA payroll as a “guest services associate.” Only made $2,208.97, which ain’t much, obviously, but any port in a storm, right, Ma?
Listed on the MCCA payroll, but apparently no longer employed there, is one Pauline Bare. Her husband Michael Bare is on the MBTA payroll. So I looked him up to check his salary ($74,500.10) and - surprise, surprise - guess who else I saw on the T with that same last name? None other than Pauline Bare, for $45,890.
Michael Bare is best known around Southie for driving a sign truck for City Councilor Mike Flaherty in election years. Back in 2006, that truck was festooned with Kerry Healey signs, which seems only right, considering how GOP governors appointed Baby Flats’ dad (an ex-solon) to a judgeship and his sister to the clerkship of the South Boston District Court.
You can check out the MCCA payroll yourself at bostonherald.com. It’s under, “Your Tax Dollars at Work,” although a more accurate description might be, “Your Tax Dollars at Play.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1138524
This is when Howie really shows his strengths!
I really feel that New England is gowing to get a lot worse before it gets better, financially.
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