The End Is Coming and I Could Not Be Happier!

At first glance, one might assume this will be my inauguation blog....how Obama won't change much, how it is a false sense of hope. No, I am gonna let that one cook. My benchmar has been set as I received my 401K statement for July 1-December 31 today and it was only down 30.1%. That is the benchmark I will use to evaluate change.

This post is about radio. Today, Clear Channel cut their workforce by 9% nationwide including some semi-popular talk show hosts and inconsequential jocks at Kool 108 and other stations. The fact that they cut from multiple stations in one town is part of the problem. Any given company should only be allowed one AM and one FM station in a market. But I digress.

This is not about the Chad Hartmans or Doogies or any other half-assed radio personality. The cuts came at WCCO, the juggernaut and at KSTP AM recently. You see, local commercial filled radio is dying. Talk still has some edge but the music side is REALLY dying.

Stations locally like KQRS which advertises "their vault of albums" only plays about .0029% of it. According to them, the Eagles only recorded Witchy Woman and Hotel California. Don't get me started on the copycat morning show idiots such as Tom Barnyard. I am pretty sure his following includes a long list of people without any other exposure to other forms of entertainment and they are convinced HE is it. HE...is a fraud along with every other yuckster on his show.

Yes, the end is coming. It is time for everyone to realize it and make the move to satellite radio. Want top 40 (repeated over and over)? Channel 1. Want 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s deep cuts (seriously deep cuts), alternative country, songs like the Rodeo Song (unedited)? Go to satellite. Want sports? They are all there. Want sports talk, left wing talk, right wing talk, CNN, MSNBC, Gay talk or Oprah (please don't say yes to Oprah Al) - it is there too. Want comedy, playboy talk, or the original, King of all Media Howard Stern? That is there too.

I cannot feel bad for the locals. As the conglomerates continued to buy up every station in every major market, the quality went exponentially downward. I won't even rent a car without satellite anymore.

Good bye Clear Channel, AM/FM inc and all of you other giant medium killers.
Rodger Wilcox....Over and Out.

Living Live! with Smokey!

Driving by myself usually results in diverse music in the CD player once the replays of Howard Stern on Sirius are done. Last week to go up hunting, I found all kinds of music in the player. Robert Earl Keen, Charlie Robison, Disney Theme Park music, Choral and lastly a couple of Rat Pack CDs. One is from the Sands hotel and the other from "The Summit" in Chicago supposedly tied to mob favors and elections.

Here is the least likely Rat Packer to get my nod, Sammy Davis, Jr. I read a book on the crew once that said it best and if I had read it first, I could have skipped the rest of all of the books I have read on the Rat Pack....

"Sammy wanted to be Frank, Frank wanted to be Dean and Dean just did not give a damn!"

Sammy had the most talent in the group hands down. I think this is true vocally as well in dance, performance and overal ability. Sammy could do impersonations, sang beautifully and could dance like few others.

Here is Sammy doing some impersonations in song. Fun stuff!

Moving Day

Hi! I am Lyle and have officially stolen my wife's idea for a blog name of "The Orracle". I had previously been posting on myspace but that site is not my idea of a blogspot.

I am sure you can read my profile but in a nutshell, I am looking for a place to rant about things going on in my life and in this world. By that, I am not terribly political but I do hold some areas where I think politics is involved and it should not be.

I like things like the Pussy Ranch blog by Diablo Cody (right here on Blogspot), good movies, Howard Stern, my home theater, my job, my family and having a good time. I play piano to ease my mind and read to go to sleep. I have one child that is a self professed Band Geek and one that is autistic.

People think I splurge too much. OK, maybe I do. We have a wonderful house full of toys. Why not live life like you want if you can though? Enjoy things while you can instead of living like peasant and saving every last penny?

I hunt, fish, camp and travel. I love to travel. I probably do it too much.

Favorite vacations are Disney (for me, not my kids...duh) and Vegas. That pretty much sums me up. I like family stuff and I like very grown up stuff.

We have taken one cruise and loved it. I travel a ton for work also and generally enjoy it although the cities I visit are not vacation meccas as a rule (Omaha, Richmond VA, Indianapolis, various New Jersey cities, Houston, etc).

From me, you can expect posts about sports, family, travel, Howard Stern, global warming (I think it is a joke), hunting, fishing and general crap.

Thanks for looking - drop me a line to say hello!