speaking of radio

[ziggyselbin]

Does anyone else lament the downfall of wjr? I know many are young on the forum and may not remember wjr when it was all local. But to hear it now as a mouthpiece for the black helicopter crowd is just sad.

I listen to the Frank Beckmann show. Lately he has been doing a lengthy misinformation campaign on the health care issue. His mantra is ...." where is it guaranteed in the constitution".... as if he were a constitutional scholar.

I don't know if the obama health care plan is the best idea. I do know that bullshit smear tactics by wjr via Beckmann are very transparent. The guest list is heavily skewed to his point of view save the one or two guests a week who disagree; allowing him to say he presents all sides...........RIIIIIIIIIIGHT.

I have observed that the right wing black helicopter crowd talk in grand gestures.........socialism, facism our rights are being taken away_ whereas the left wing via npr talk in much more personal terms i.e. they relate issues to themselves personally.

Anyway way back wjr was a good station with hosts that did not take themselves so damn seriously and had a sense of humor.

[Detroitnerd]

More of the same, as far as I'm concerned. When I left town in 1991, Dick Purtan was the moustachioed jester of morning radio. Now he's some kind of anti-labor birther, fulminating about terrorism and left-wing unionists. My response? "Click."

[REL]

God Bless Craig Fahle!

[Stosh]

I lament the loss of the sanity of the WJR administration. What once was the Great Voice of the Great Lakes has now devolved into something significantly less.

Listening to Frank Beckmann? I'd sooner cut my ears off.
I didn't even know that Purtan went that way too. Sad.

My morning radio choices for news or talk are WWJ, or 97.1 The Ticket.

[diver1369]

Tell Frank Beckmann, the health care plan can be found in the US Constitution under the "general welfare" clause. Ask him, why does he hate his fellow citizens so much that he would deny them medical care? He's a tool for the corporate interests that are executing a campaign of fear and misinformation.

[turkeycall]

WJR - The Great Voice of the Great Lakes! Marshall Wells had the 5:00 am farm report. Bud Guest and his "Sunny Side of the Street" was on Saturday mornings. And, I remember my mother listening to Arthur Godfrey every morning on WJR. My folks would set the clock radio to play for one hour when they turned in for the night. Jay Roberts and his "Night Flight 760" put them to sleep. All this was in the 50s and 60s. We kids didn't dare attempt to change the station on the folks' clock radio - not unless we had a death wish we needed to have fulfilled.

Now, 760 is nothing but right wing crap from Rush and his likes.

I guess it's true - you can't go home. It's just not the same.

[Stosh]

Tell Frank Beckmann, the health care plan can be found in the US Constitution under the "general welfare" clause. Ask him, why does he hate his fellow citizens so much that he would deny them medical care? He's a tool for the corporate interests that are executing a campaign of fear and misinformation.

He's a tool alright. My only regret is that he broadcasts Michigan football games. I suppose we're lucky he doesn't go off on some rants there as well.

" He ruuns up the middle, stopped dead in his tracks for no gain. What else do you expect from a flaming liberal from Ann Arbor... oops!"

[Vic_doucette]

When I was a WJR traffic reporter -- a l-o-n-g- time ago -- I was almost unspeakably proud of that.

I haven't listened in years.

[ziggyselbin]

for the responses. I am in my car a lot so I listen to a lot of radio wjr, wdet wemu, wuom, wrcj, wwj,wxyt,and even am 1460 out of pontiac which is the closest thing to radio back in the 60's.........you might hear mancini followed by blue cheer!

[MrNittany]

He's a tool alright. My only regret is that he broadcasts Michigan football games. I suppose we're lucky he doesn't go off on some rants there as well.

" He ruuns up the middle, stopped dead in his tracks for no gain. What else do you expect from a flaming liberal from Ann Arbor... oops!"

HA! FWIW, his unforgetable call of the 2001 MSU/U-M game, which is absolute hilarity! Hit the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoFZIBY-IVU

I've heard a longer stretch [[the 5:00 before than this) ..... he and Brandy were whining the entire way. The clock thing was the last of their many whines [[12 Men on the Field, the 4th down personal foul call, et cetera).

Oh yeah, MSU had a time-out unfairly taken away from them previously in the drive, to preemptively answer any U-M apologists talking about "THEY STOPPED THE CLOCK, JIM!!!! THY STOPPED THE CLOCK WHEN THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE!"

[MrNittany]

WJR - The Great Voice of the Great Lakes! Marshall Wells had the 5:00 am farm report. Bud Guest and his "Sunny Side of the Street" was on Saturday mornings. And, I remember my mother listening to Arthur Godfrey every morning on WJR. My folks would set the clock radio to play for one hour when they turned in for the night. Jay Roberts and his "Night Flight 760" put them to sleep. All this was in the 50s and 60s. We kids didn't dare attempt to change the station on the folks' clock radio - not unless we had a death wish we needed to have fulfilled.

Now, 760 is nothing but right wing crap from Rush and his likes.

I guess it's true - you can't go home. It's just not the same.

WJR used to be 24/7 local radio. The glory days. A fully-staffed news room and a terrific source of local information. Now they're local only 10 hours each weekday [[5 AM-Noon; 5-8), and a few hours each Saturday and Sunday. And barely 1-2 minutes of "local" news each hour.

Of course, they're not the only once 24/7-local news/talk station that has gone that way. In fact, 700 WLW down where I live [[Cinci) may be the only one really left.

[Mackenzie68]

Bud Guest was sponsored by "Twin Pines, the employee-owned dairy". At least in the late fifties/early sixties Bud and the gang were on during the week. We listened faithfully and the key for me to leave for the walk to school was the Winston commercial. Remember the one that was grammatically incorrect?

I know JP was pontificating by the time I was in high school, but we listened and crabbed about his fascination with Francis Albert Sinatra anyway.

My first car had a stuck radio tuner and I alternated between CKLW and WJR. And sometimes I could get WBZ [[?) Boston on the skip.

What was I supposed to get at the market today? Ah, the memory.

[diver1369]

My first car had a stuck radio tuner and I alternated between CKLW and WJR. And sometimes I could get WBZ [[?) Boston on the skip. ^^^^^

WBZ, I thought I was the only one who could pull that station out of the air sometimes. It seemed WBZ was ahead of the curve breaking new artists, that is, new artists to the Detroit area. It's the station I first heard Jimi Hendrix on and picked up his album before anyone else knew his name. And the Bosstown Sound of the Ultimate Spinach. Thank you Dick Summer.

[Bobl]

Beckmann is laughable.
Purtan was, when he told that funny joke or two, thirty years ago.

[ronaldj]

That is why my car radio is tuned to 89.9 Radio Canada 2 or 93.9, The River. Off and on WWJ for weather and traffic. WJR for Beckmann every once in a while. Offputing but not too stupid.

Have not followed WDET lately.

Overall, lots of choice on Detroit radio.

[jefferson78]

The fact that WJR uses an aging, unhinged sportscaster to spew right wing garbage says everything to me.
Add him to Rush, and Hannity and you have radio that appeals only to the far right.
Id rather be hung from my nutsack than listen to that crap.
If you want a more balanced view of what is happening, although definitely left leaning, listen to 1310 AM.
The Freep still prints Beckman's ridiculous rants, go figure.
Thank God Drew Lane came back to WRIF.
I still cannot believe the cluelessness of most of our morning radio hosts [[97.1)
How did they ever get their jobs?
With that said, I wish we had more local sports radio shows.

[waz]

Wow. 15 posts and nobody’s mentioned Albom yet.

What I miss about WJR is that they used to broadcast Tigers baseball games. You could catch a game clear down to Tennessee. Now that they’re on WXYT, you’re lucky to hear ‘em in Toledo!

[jefferson78]

Albom is supposed to provide some sort of balance to the far right ideology that is prevalent in WJR. The problem is he's always benn viewed as a "lightweight" when it comes to radio.
All I've ever heard him do is suck up to the celebrity guests that frequent his shows.

[jackie5275]

The Freep still prints Beckman's ridiculous rants, go figure.

Actually, it's the Detroit News that gives Beckman news space.

[KENSINGTONY]

I started listening to WJR in the late 60s for the baseball games and gradually just kept listening to it through the day.In fact,Jimmy Launce helped form a good bit of my musical taste[[since he didn't blab as much as JP McCarthy did until the Music Hall format went away).I remember being partially asleep some nights when Jay Roberts played The Bickersons skits and thinking they were the funniest things I'd ever heard.Must have been tryptophan or something.

[EastsideAl]

It's all part of the sad state that radio has come to nationwide. Held hostage to the know-nothing screamer crowd. The once-mighty WJR succumbed long ago and isn't coming back. Listening to that blowhard fool Beckmann is like hearing chalk being scraped over and over again on a blackboard. Say what you will about JP McCarthy and his babbling, but amidst the fluff his Focus interview show really had objective interviews [[you know, actually fair and balanced) with often intelligent and incisive questions being asked about serious matters. Rather than the "gotcha" yelling over each other style that sadly prevails today. It's truly sad that civility and intelligence and class and any attempt at calm measured discussion have almost slipped entirely out of our public discourse.

[ziggyselbin]

I for one really liked J.P. He was smooth and when ever a guest or a caller was righteous or indignant he would let out a little humorous jab that let the audience in on the fact that he knew nothing was to be taken too seriously. And there are far less deserving people than Sinatra to be obsessing over.

As for local sports in the a.m. Matt Shepard is on 1130am from 7a_9a. I enjoy him very much. There is none of the juvenile crap that permeates so many of the tandem a.m. show.

It is great to have Drew Lane back. He is a real pro.

[preserve]

I've given up on almost all radio. First of all, the commercials take up most of the time. I put on WWJ on the 8s for traffic and weather and Canadian Radio for the oldies and maybe 104.7 but I hate formula radio and that's all there is. That's why I have a car with a cd player. I do know people who quote all the crap on WJR all the time and try to avoid all conversation with them.

[littlebuddy]

Does anyone remember the lineup on WJR back in the 60's and 70's?

[Brian1979]

WJR pretty much died when J.P. died if J.P. was still alive and doing his morning show it would still be a valued station. After they lost their sports coverage of the Tigers, Wings and Michigan football that went down the drain as well. Back in the day when J.P. was the king of Detroit radio and Jimmy Launce was there as well WJR was a strong station but they failed. I can remember being on Spring Break in Florida, it was 1995 and we were traveling north when the Oklahoma City bombings happened, just as we crossed into North Carolina traveling along Interstate 77 we were able to pull WJR in and the well known voice of J.P. McCarthy took over the airwaves to fill us in on the bombing in OC. When they had the Tigers it was Ernie Harwell the best play by play broadcaster in baseball filling the airwaves, I'm old enough to remember Ernie and Paul and it was always a great broadcast. With WJR's very powerful 50,000 watt signal very few stations jam it within about a 700 mile radius of any direction from Detroit, it would be really nice if they had more local programing on there. The only area's where I've had some trouble pulling WJR in is in the NYC area where WABC is operating at 770 and in Atlanta where WSB is operating at 750. I don't like the current WJR and haven't listened to the station on a regular basis in year's which is sad since I use to listen to it everyday.