NevadaBrad

As Harry Reid works closely with our supreme leader, President Barack Obama (mmm, mmm, mmm), to turn America into a rotting mess, there is good news in the Silver State! During the past two weeks I have seen several marmots – mostly in the usual place, but a few in places I haven’t seen them before. I tried to snap some pictures but it was just too cold and windy that particular day. But to celebrate our 2010 team of marmots I’m posting a few low quality scans of some old pictures. I’ll try to improve the quality another time.

For years we’ve been told how precious our planet is. It’s one of a kind. It’s the only Earth we’ve got. After years of bludgeoning the ozone with our CFCs and warming the planet with our carnivorous lifestyles, we’re finally starting to come around. We bring our Earth-friendly shopping bags to the store and we carefully try to reduce the temperature of our breath before exhaling. No one is more vigilant about preserving Mother Earth than those on the left. While those on the right are more into exercising “dominion” over the earth, the lefties have selflessly turned their lives over to the planet to protect what fragile life may still be left in her.

While this liberals and progressives will stop at nothing to find the medicine that will finally reduce Earth’s imaginary fever, they bare their hypocrisy when it comes to an imminent threat that is very real. If the the Earth is a lone oasis in a hostile universe then the United States is no less so. The world is full of hostile governments that exercise ruthless control over their populations. Even fairly free societies such as England make no bones about watching their citizens from cameras installed on every corner or denying people the right to bear arms. The United States is an island where people can believe and say whatever they want. Life and liberty are guaranteed. At least that’s the way it used to be.

Now, the same people who to control what kind of light bulbs we use for the sake of the planet are willing to annihilate an oasis that is no less miraculous than our incredible planet. People can go anywhere in the world and see progressive ideas in effect. Of course, this is especially true of health care since socialized medicine is available just about anywhere else you go. And yet America has a fantastic health care system – the best in the world. Somehow they did it without the government running it.

So, why can’t the lib-progs leave us alone? Why can’t they show the same interest in protecting America that they do protecting the planet from fictitious man-made climate change? America did not become the greatest country on Earth because of how hard we tried to be like everyone else. We need to take a stand. Harry Reid, Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus need to be thrown out for what they’ve done. Instead of standing for liberty and freedom they trampled our rights. Instead of giving everyone a chance to succeed they voted to make people dependent on the government.

The politicians in Washington are counting on people tiring of the debate before the November elections. Let’s show Washington that Obamacare is not a cure – it’s a festering wound and it’s only going to get worse between now and November. The cure is to clean the filth out of Washington and elect people who will restore our freedoms.

If you listen to Obama he will tell you to give America the painkiller instead of opting for the life saving surgery. He wants you to forget what they’re doing in Washington. We owe the United States of America – the greatest nation in the history of the world – at least the same respect that we show our planet. We have nowhere to retreat and the threat is real. Let’s choose the surgery and cut out the disease in Washington this November.

I got so worked up about Harry Reid and all the people who donate money to him that I neglected my radio reviewing duties. Before I continue with the radio stuffins I’ll give you a couple little games to play. First, check out Harry Reid’s 2005-2010 top 100 donors at OpenSecrets.org. If you’re looking for an easy game, try spotting the personal injury lawyers that donate to Harry Reid. If you’re looking for a challenge, try figuring out why the list shows a $14,400 donation from “US Senate” and $13,200 from “University of Nevada”. I know that the University receives a lot of private donations, but as a state school what right do they have to being making these kinds of political donations? As for the US Senate, I’m certain that he’s not donating to himself through the senate. I mean, I’m pretty sure he’s not, right? Anyone?

But I digress. The real reason we’re here today is to catch up on what’s going on in the world of radio. Since this is the season of State of the Union and State of the State addresses we’ll call this the State of the Stations post. We have much to discuss since the last rating schedule we reviewed was for Fall of 2008. Since then the Spring 2009 and Fall 2009 numbers have been released. Arbitron still only lists four stations as talk format with only KOH and 99.1 listed as “News Talk”.

KBZZ (1270 AM) – After a dip in ratings in the fall of 2008 The Buzz made a nice little rebound. They climbed up to 2% in SP09 from 1.6% in FA08. But then they plummeted to a horrendous .4% in FA09. This ties them for last place among all stations of any format. The main personalities all seem to be in place, so I’m not sure why they’re doing so poorly. They still seem to be chasing the most uninteresting types of talk radio – maybe people have just decided to move on. Who knows? Who cares?

KJFK (1230 AM) – There is no doubt that having a huge error in their slogan has hurt KJFK. On their web page their slogan erroneously proclaims KJFK to be “AM with IQ”. Proclaiming the slogan thus when they clearly meant it to read “AM with LOW IQ” shows sloppiness, which is an unattractive attribute. Nevertheless, KJFK also showed a substantial drop in ratings. After dropping from 1.7% in FA08 to 1.6% in SP09, they dropped to a painful 1%. This drop not nearly as substantial as what KBZZ suffered, but it’s certainly not good. Of course, Air America has been embattled for years and recently stopped broadcasting completely. KJFK primarily featured Air America programming before and I’m not sure what they’re going to do now. The Air America announcement could mean one of two different things. First, it could mean an improvement in KJFK ratings now that some of the crazies are not on their station anymore. Second, it could mean their certain demise. KKFT and KKOH offer far more interesting programming, so without a major leftie operation to provide programming I’m not sure how appealing KJFK will remain.

KKFT (99.1 FM) – After dropping from an outstanding 2.3% in FA08 to 1.4% in SP09, KKFT has slowly resumed marching upward. KKFT’s FA09 ratings are listed at 1.5%. With the exception of the bump in FA08 their ratings have been fairly steady and generally trend upwards. That said, KKFT seems to be entering adolesence. The station seems to be groping for a new identity, but it’s not clear what they are trying to achieve. The addition of Michael Savage was the first sign that things were about to get wonky. Last week the station replaced Michael Savage with Rusty Humphries – not a move that I expect will help. They also did a major scramble not long ago. Dr. Laura was bumped to the middle of the night and Tom Sullivan took her place. Dave Ramsey was moved from Saturday night to Sunday night. Tammy Bruce was eliminated entirely. There were other changes, as well, but I’ve included the changes that disappointed me the most. Tom Sullivan has actually been very enjoyable, but I miss Dr. Laura. Tammy Bruce and Dave Ramsey were great and I miss being able to listen to them. I hope KKFT finds its voice soon. Quality of programming seems to be going the wrong way.

KKOH (780AM) – KOH experienced the same bump that KKFT experienced. After rising to a phenomenol 13.6% in FA08 they sank back to 10.4% in SP09. From there they increased slightly to 10.5%. KOH continues to dominate the Reno market due to very solid programming. With Rush, Hannity and Levin the station features excellent national shows. Bill Manders offers a local program that thumps any other local programming. Part of the appeal of KOH is that I always know what I’m going to hear when I turn on the station. Changes are made rarely and are almost always for the better. Although I view KOH as a Goliath and I’m looking for a David to come along and humble them, I can certainly respect the appeal of the station.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Both KBZZ and KJFK seem to be in a tailspin and things are not looking good for either of them. Although KOH still crushes KKFT (for reasons discussed previously), KKFT continues to hold its own. Until KKFT gets settled I expect it to be a very slow ascent.

There was something else that I found interesting. KBZZ had a substantial dip in FA08. KJFK remained mostly static in FA08. Both KOH and KKFT had a nice bump in FA08 that was not seen on any of the other Reno stations. (A couple music stations had a bump, but nothing that seemed unique among their normal trends.) People obviously flocked primarily to KOH and KKFT for election news and information. I would have expected KJFK to get a similar bump. This is not good news for KJFK – they seem to be stuck with the same audience that they’ve always had. Listeners to not trust them to get information, even in an election that swung for their candidate. On the bright side, I think the bump is further evidence that KKFT is being taken seriously as a force in the Reno market for serious new and talk.

It’s that time again. More mindless blabbering about radio stuff. Since the last time I travelled this path I’ve done some thinking. Reader Rick posted a comment and asked the following questions:

Can you provide me with ratings for the weekday drive time?

Is Bill Manders so popular that KKOH continues to support and keep his program active?

Where does Bill Manders stand in the ratings?

I dug around quite a bit but couldn’t find any specific information to answer these questions. This type of detail is included in the reports that must be purchased (usually through a subscription). My curiosity does not lead me to pay money for this information. At least not right now. Or maybe ever.

Anyway, while thinking about this topic I came to the realization that I’m not a fan of local talk. “Reno’s Morning News” (Breakfast Club) may be great. Bill Manders may be King of Reno. But, personally, I’m just not a big fan of local talk. Like sushi or Macs, it’s not my thing. I used to like local talk. I loved Brian Maloney when he used to be on KOH. I also loved Ira Hansen when he was on KOH. I think Rusty killed it for me, though. He did a lot of good for our community, but that’s when I started to fall out of love with local talk. Even Ira Hansen, whom I loved on KOH, did not appeal to me as much when he reappeared on 99.1.

I only mention all this to identify that I am not impartial when it comes to discussing local talk. I suspect that Bill Manders is extremely popular. He’s been on KOH for a long time and KOH is usually pretty sensitive to programming the most popular (e.g. profitable) shows. If anyone would like to provide more specifics about the topic I would love the information.

The spring numbers are available, so I’ll be posting them along with my usual commentary shortly.

Since my last post regarding trial lawyers, I did a little more research. Specifically, I paid a little more attention to the ads that were on TV and I looked at the local trial lawyer pool to see how they compared. I shouldn’t be surprised by what I found, but I will admit I was a little disappointed.

I saw ads for additional firms that were advertising for whatever it is they advertise for (mesothelioma, asbestos exposure, drug side-effects, etc. – pick one). One was Weitz & Luxenberg. Perry Weitz donated $28,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in addition to $2300 and $2000 to John Edwards (WHAT!?!) for his 2008 and 2004 presidential runs respectively. He also gave $6600 collectively to Biden and Gephardt for their campaigns.

Working alongside Mr. Weitz is Arthur Luxenberg. He also donated $28,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as well as $2100 and $2000 for John Edwards 2008 and 2004 campaigns. Collectively he also gave $8820 to other Democrat candidates since 2004. He actually donated $2000 to Joe Lieberman in 2004 – by far his least extreme donation.

So, I decided to look at some of the personal injury lawyers local to the Reno area. When I searched on Google the first firm that came up was Bradley, Drendel & Jeanney. I grabbed information for Bill Bradley, Joseph Bradley, Thomas Drendel and William Jeanney. Their donations break down as follows:

• Bill Bradley – $2300 to John Edwards in 2007 and $1000 to Harry Reid in 2008
• Joseph Bradley – $1000 to John Edwards in 2007 and $1500 to John Edwards in 2004
• Thomas Drendel – $2000 to John Edwards in 2007 plus $1000 each to Harry Reid, Jill Derby, the Nevada State Democratic Party and the DNC
• William Jeanney – $1500 to John Edwards in 2004 (Juanita Jeanney also gave $1500 to John Edwards in 2004)

It seems like there may be a pattern, but I can’t quite pick out what it is.

While looking up information, one name came up regularly – Peter Neumann. He is also a trial lawyer in the Reno area. He is apparently a very successful lawyer because he gave almost $36,000 to Democrat causes and candidates in 2008, almost $25,000 in 2006 and more than $30,000 in 2004. He even gave $1000 to Al Franken in 2008. Strangely, he also donated $3100 to John Edwards in 2008. Oops, that’s not strange. I meant it was strange that he only donated $500 to John Edwards in 2004.

Anyway, I could go on all day like this, but there really wouldn’t be a point. In an extremely inaccurate stab, I went back to the Fundrace webpage and typed “trial lawyer” into the occupation field and did a search. The result showed that trial lawyers had donated $25,551 to Republican candidates and $164,048 to Democrat candidates. The flaw is that this number does not include large donations such as the $28,500 donations made to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee or the DNC, for example. It also only gives a sampling – it’s not a complete list. I’m not sure how the page selects which donors will be included – it could be weighted heavily toward Republicans or Democrats. At face value it certainly illustrates what I’ve been trying to say.

Trial lawyers contribute more to our country’s health care problems than insurance companies. When trial lawyers are spending so much money making sure other trial lawyers are legislating then we can be assured that we will never see tort reform. We will never see our health care system improve. We will only see the corruption spread. John Edwards is the poster boy for what’s wrong with our legal system. Instead of despising him, the trial lawyers generally celebrate him and use their money to try to make him (or people like him) our president. To me, this is absolutely terrifying.

There is good news, though. If you are having trouble figuring out who to vote for, just look at who the trial lawyers are donating money to and then vote for that persons opponent. It makes research much easier. Had you done this, you would have voted against Harry Reid, Dina Titus and Jill Derby. It seems like a pretty safe system to me.

I finally did it. I took myself down to the county offices and changed my voter registration. I am now registered as an NP.

This is not the first time but it will be the last time until something drastic changes. I originally registered as an R right out of high school and voted in my first election five months later. My dad was a D, so I don’t remember how I ended up an R.

So, I first changed my registration in 2001 after the election of George W. Bush. I strongly supported him and was giddy when he won (yes, he was elected and not selected). One of the first things he tried to do was shove amnesty down our throats. I was so disgusted by this that I changed to an IA. The tragedy of 9/11 happened shortly after that and a lot of things changed. The Ds became very mean and hateful and seemed to quickly forget that our status as Americans came before our political affiliation. Partisan politics resumed and the vile things that came from the Ds was so offensive to me that I re-registered as an R to show support for President Bush.

As President Bush’s second term rolled along it became clear that his values were not quite in step with the people of this country. He again started pushing for amnesty and then saddled us with Medicare reform that only caused our hole to become deeper. As a capstone, near the end of his presidency he pushed for the original economic stimulus plan. Everyone seemed to know that it was a bad idea, but he pushed for it anyway. Then our supreme leader, President Barack Obama, came into office and continued the policies of President Bush.

It is clear that both major political parties are out of touch with the people of this country. I have chosen to shed my R because I’m tired of choosing the lesser of two evils. I can readily admit that President Bush made some major errors. I am further disgusted by news of John Ensign’s affair. I refuse to argue that he has done well for Nevada even though he has made such an egregious error in his personal life.

This is my challenge to any Ds that may be reading this: Admit that our supreme leader, President Barack Obama, has been a failure. Quit supporting his outrageous policies and hold him accountable in the same way that you would hold an R accountable. Hold Senator Reid accountable that same way you have held John Ensign accountable for his mistake. Finally, quit complaining about people in the townhall meetings and support them the same way you supported those who protested President Bush throughout his presidency.

Stop letting Washington pit everyone against each other! I’ve taken a step and I hope everyone reading this will find a way to take a step for themselves. There is no better time to start cleaning out Washington than now.

I should preface this article by saying that some are sure to be offended and others will agree. To be more specific, of the two people who read this the reaction will be split. That’s assuming that both people are still reading.

I don’t follow local news and I certainly don’t go out of my way to find out what’s going on in our area. I am inadvertently exposed to local news occasionally and I never find myself wanting more. If it’s important I usually hear about it on the radio. Today I glanced over the RGJ Neighborhood paper that they send in the mail every so often (weekly maybe?). They featured an article about an art-piece that the city council was going to install at Virginia Lake. The link to the article is here:

Council rethinks Virginia Lake sculpture

The article contains a picture of the proposed sculpture, but since the RGJ has a practice of extorting money for articles beyond a certain date I have also saved the picture for future reference should this link break.

EDIT: The link broke. Here’s the picture:

The article indicates that the council wanted a sculpture that “represent[s] Hispanic culture”.  The debate seems to center around whether the sculpture appropriately represents Hispanic culture or whether it presents a “‘goofy’ caricature of Hispanic culture.” First, why does the city council think we need to spend $67,439 representing Hispanic culture? I believe public art should represent the public. Art should represent Northern Nevadans and Reno.

This leads to my second question: why does it matter how the Hispanic culture is represented? It seems that generally speaking there is little respect shown by Hispanics – especially illegals – toward America in general. They don’t respect our borders or our language. Based on the number of illegals in jail for felony crimes, it is obvious they don’t respect our laws. There is a flood of illegal immigrants coming to our country and they want to make America just like the country they are fleeing. To thank them for what they are doing to the United States, we try to be nice and make a statue to celebrate their culture. So, again, who cares how they are represented?

Immigration is what made this country great, but it only helps the country and the immigrant if assimilation is part of that process. Illegal immigrants certainly show no desire to assimilate and it’s certainly not legal immigrants that are flowing into our country like water through a broken dam.

I don’t think I’m that different from other Americans when I say that I don’t have a problem with Mexico generally. I can’t begin to thank them enough for Del Taco – it’s really delicious. I don’t appreciate having the spanish language shoved in my face on ballots, tax forms, Burger King wrappers and so on. I don’t like having downtown shut down for Cinco de Mayo when we don’t show the same respect to our own great country. Least of all, I hate that illegals from Mexico are forcing Americans to adopt a caste system, which we have been free from since the founding of our country.  Everyone deserves better than that – Mexicans most of all.

I’m not one to follow local news very closely, except as it relates to me directly. Occasionally the local news will come on and for one reason or another it doesn’t get changed. Not that there’s any point in sharing this. In the not too distant past a couple of stories were played that I found either infuriating or humorous. I’m still undecided. I’ll only touch briefly on one of the topics – I’ll save the other for another day since it will likely be more involved to get all the information straight.

In this particular story the reporter was discussing Reno’s economic health during this downturn. I didn’t catch every word, but it looked like they were talking to Jessica Sferrazza so it seemed pretty official. At the end of the story, either the city or the reporter asked the viewers, “What ideas do you have to help Reno work this the economic crisis?” I may be paraphrasing.

I’m sure everyone was thinking what I was thinking: Station Casinos. Our city council sometimes seems hell-bent on looking for any opportunity it can find to grab a quick buck through taxation of casinos. We do live in Nevada, and that’s a choice I’ve made along with pretty much everyone else, but don’t complain to the public when the gambling industry begins to suffer.

Station Casinos was heavily protested by all the people who live in the area that would be affected. Petitions were signed and the people made it clear that they do not want a casino in this area. People also flooded the halls when the city council discussed the project. Wisely, the city council listened to the people and did not approve the casino permit; however, as our city council is prone to do, they quietly met a short time later and approved the permit when they didn’t have those nasty constituents breathing down their necks and forcing their opinions on the council representatives.

As Indian gaming and internet gaming grows and other states consider legalizing gambling, Reno must stop this foolish money grabbing. This recession/depression should be a lesson that we are putting our eggs in one basket. Let Las Vegas have the gaming tourism – Reno will never be able to compete. Northern Nevada needs to focus on other business and finding ways to make Northern Nevada attractive to a variety of industries. This means abandoning our city’s current policy of “A Casino on Every Corner”, also known as “No Compulsive Gambler Left Behind”.

Reno can correct a number of issues by taking my advice. The obvious benefits include fewer suicides, fewer alcoholics, less drug use and trafficking and a better enviroment and community for everyone. I would imagine there would be less tobacco use and fewer people killed by drunk drivers, but I’m not sure if there are statistics to back me up. That’s just my opinion.

While opining, I believe that the county should overhaul WCSD and encourage school vouchers and better school choice. Nevada spends a fortune on our kids and they are getting a very poor education in many cases. Yet, everywhere I look I see billboards (horrible, evil billboards) saying the educators need more money. Every election there is a bond issue on the ballot. I’m pretty sure that every bond measure passes, too. But it’s never enough. It will never be enough. The only thing that will improve our school district is some good old-fashioned competition – not more money.

So, to try to wrap this up into some type of coherent statement, quit focusing so much on gaming and tourism and try to find ways to attract businesses to Reno. Quit putting casinos outside of downtown. Quit taxing the living snot out of existing casinos to fund a failing school district that shows little tolerance for competition.

For additional reading about how our current funding helps our schools, check out this article at the Nevada Policy Research Institute: http://www.npri.org/publications/spending-for-spendings-sake

Oh, and quit raising my taxes every time I turn around. Okay, I’m done.

Well, it’s that time of the decade again. It’s time to go through and give my biased, uneducated analysis of the Reno radio market. Today’s information will be pulled from Arbitron’s ratings published February 2nd, 2009, which reflect ratings for Fall 2008. For the sake of consistency, I’ll include all the same stations I’ve discussed in the past, but really I only care about three specific stations.

KBZZ (1270 AM) - KBZZ had a nice little ride going from 1.7 to 2.1 to 2.4 before plummeting back to 1.6. We’ll see what happens when the spring 2009 ratings come out. I don’t really care about this station for reasons I’ve discussed in the past, so I’ll move on…

KJFK (1230 AM) - KJFK has stayed fairly static. Their market share seems to flutter between 1.6 and 1.7. Even if one subscribes to a liberal point of view, the personalties on this station are so extreme that it loses all entertainment value. It’s like listening to a liberal version of Michael Savage all day, every day.

KKFT (99.1 FM) - KKFT had a very healthy .7% increase between the spring ’08 and fall ’08 ratings period. Their most recent share sits at 2.3. There are several things that make KKFT’s rise amazing. For starters, they are competing against a mammoth 50,000 watt AM station that has been around longer than any other station in Reno. KKFT operates on an extremely modest 410 watt FM transmitter located in Washoe Valley. Michael Savage, who was previously on KKOH, was recently added to their evening lineup. I can’t imagine this will help them, but then again some people like Savage. I think.

KKOH (780 AM) - After some tiny fluctuations in KOH’s market share they now show a gain of 3.3 market share to put them at 13.6. They are still number one in the Reno market with ratings almost double that of the next closest station (Sunny 106.9 at 7.8, in case you wanted to know).

Both KOH and 99.1 FM Talk showed extremely healthy gains this time. KOH had an increase of a little more than 24%, while 99.1 FM Talk’s gain was more than 30%! Is it because it was election year and more people were listening to talk radio? If elections make talk radio more popular, then I find it interesting that KJFK showed no significant gain.

Other than Savage, none of the stations have made any significant changes worth discussing. I’ve already discussed my thoughts on Michael Savage.

Huge congratulations to Jerry Evans on the success of his station. I hope it continues!

We’ll be back to talk about this again when the Spring 2009 numbers come out…

As the country prepares for a brutal assault waged by the enemies of freedom, tragic news strikes a little closer to home.

I feel as though I’ve been cheated on. As though I walked in the room to find the one I love with another man. I’m speaking, of course, about the additon of Michael Savage to 99.1 FM Talk‘s lineup. This change is particularly damaging because it seems that the scales are beginning to tip back to KOH. KOH will now feature Mark Levin from 6p to 8p, the same time slot that Michael Savage will be on 99.1.

I’ve been wrong about some hosts in the past. For example, at one point I referred to Lars Larson in a way that was not entirely flattering. He is now one of my favorite hosts, even though I struggle with his opinion on the Compean/Ramos situation. (I don’t disagree with him, I just have a difficult time forming a solid opinion because his arguments are good but they go against what everyone else says. Thinking for myself is hard.) I find that you often have to listen to someone for quite a while before you really get a feel for what they’re about. Another good example of that would be Glenn Beck. I’ve been listening to him for years and it’s only within the last several months that I’ve begun to get a feel for his depth. He likes to act goofy, but he’s extremely intelligent and dead-serious about the topics he cares about.

Michael Savage is the opposite. When you first listen to him you you enjoy hearing someone speak so bluntly about topics that matter. But then it’s gets old. He starts to sound like a bitter person who no one wants to be around because he brings everyone down. I think I gave him a pretty fair shot. I listened regularly for  quite a while when he first came to KOH (as long as I could take it) and I read his first book. His ideas are actually very good. I think most people would agree with most of his opinions. Unfortunately, he is just plain unpleasant to listen to.

So, KOH owns me from 6p to 8p. Mark Levin is the bomb. I’m sorry FM Talk. We can’t keep seeing each if this is how you’re going to treat me.