Stockstradamus AKA Stocky’s Blog

Joan Vennochi gives a nice slap to the dumb voters of Massachusetts in her Sunday Column:

BARACK OBAMA is promising to change politics as usual in America. As Massachusetts already knows, that can be one tough promise to keep.

Last year, Deval Patrick promised to do the same, when he ran for governor. Voters bought the message, making him the first Democrat in 16 years to win the corner office, and the first black candidate to do so.

What dummies we all are. Well, not Stocky. I didn’t vote for Deval but the rest of you sure are dopes.

Joan takes a small swipe at Deval later in the column:

Obama has held elective office on the state and national level, so he has much more political experience than a neophyte like Patrick.

Neophyte. Not very endeering. That Joan sure is tough on our Governor and the rubes who fell for his campaign spiel.

But what about Joan? Let’s hit the way back machine and find all those columns she wrote during the campaign warning us not to be fooled by the Great Black Hope’s Hype and accurately describing his lack of experience….

Damn. The friggin machine must be broke again. I can’t find a single Vennochi column like that. In fact, all I can find are column’s where Joan is fawning all over Deval like Bill Clinton on an intern.

Revisionist history at work in your Boston Globe. Be a Woman Joan. Admit you’re a dope too.

More on Deval:

Howie Carr takes time off from his much less listened to radio show to make a point that Stocky has been making for months:

What exactly has the guy accomplished in his first year in office?

Exactly nothing if you ask me.

Gov Do-Nothing is back from a “critical” trade mission to China where he set up an office to do who knows what. Sounds like more good jobs at good wages for Deval suckups and campaign contributers.

What a joke this guy is.

All this is detailed at devalpatrickwatch.com

Just a quick followup post on the Howie Carr disaster.

I was the first to predict that Imus would end up back on WTKK. At the time, “industry expert” Brian Maloney at savewrko.com insisted that would never happen.

Not only did it happen, it was announced the same day Howie submitted to Julie Kahn.

(Note to self: Find out if Julie now refers to Howie as “Submit”.)

WTKK had this in the works for weeks as the Howie drama played out. WTKK is so far the only syndicated Imus station. As I posted before, I bet Imus loved screwing his good friend Howie … I mean, Submit.

Now that Howie is back in Julie Kahn’s stable of neutered talk show hosts, Stocky is free to reveal the rumored “3rd option” Howie was contemplating the last couple of months.

It only appeared that Howie’s lawyers were complete morons. They actually had a secret plan to move Howie beyond the reach of U.S. contract law.

New Zealand. Howie’s childhood in Western Mass, his relationships with Sheep and his experience as a chicken farmer were finally going to pay off. Alas + Alack, that dream was shattered by the New Zealand authorities once Howie stepped on a scale.

Oh, well.

On to Howie’s first day back on the “Job”. It most certainly sounds like Howie is working a “Job”. He said several times that it was “great to be back on the radio”, but not a word about being back on WRKO.

Within the first 10 minutes he dissed Wolf Blitzer for “caving to the pressure” and not asking a followup question to Hillary on her drivers license flip-flop.

You would know all about caving under pressure Howie, that’s for sure.

He promised that from now on he would be taking off “every 2-bit holiday” and not working like he has in the past. The Mumbles Menino segment sounded forced and way too long. All in all, it sounded more like a 4 hour hostage tape than a radio show with a host interested in entertaining his listeners.

The unanswered question remaining from this debacle is what kind of contract did Howie get?

As I said before, if he got stuck with the one WTKK gave him, he’s screwed. That contract was incentive laden based on ratings metrics that Howie will likely never meet. Especially if he doesn’t change his piss poor attitude. As he himself said in the Lisa Hughes interview, “the listeners can tell if you’re not having fun”.

So, unless ‘RKO gave him a major concession and reworked his deal to not include ratings incentives, he is looking at a pretty severe pay cut.

After all the publicly expressed hard feelings the last few months I can’t imagin that Entercom would not want a ratings based contract with Howie just to protect themselves from Howie “taking a dive” either intentionally or unintentionally. 

Looking down the road, I can see Howie’s poor attitude driving poor ratings, driving poor paychecks, driving even worse attitude, … rinse and repeat.

Where’s William Bulger when we need him. I’m sure there is some obscure tragic literary figure that represents Howie in this dilemma. I guess we’ll have to wait until Bulger “deems it appropriate” to chime in on this.

Yes, as the final hours of Howie’s self imposed radio silence grow few, we look back at one of the last sightings of Howie in the wild with his balls intact.

The Lisa Hughes interview.

Realizing that this footage could be too painful for some to watch, Stocky brings you some of Howie’s most memorable quotes:

I’m really happy to be getting on the FM dial.

I don’t really know how long AM stations … are going to be around.

The FM band has every advantage and it’s just better for me and honestly I’ll be surrounded by better people.

I’m in a lineup at ‘RKO where nobody gets on base.

I know the type of people Entercom hires and I know what they are capable of … they think they have a lot of money and they can tell me what to do.

I’m being dragged through the mud by these people.

Everybody’s gotta take a beating. Some times it’s your turn to take a beating.

I’ll be listening to Jay Severin, WTKK, 96.9 Boston’s talk evolution.

So sad, Howie. You coulda been a contendah.

Howie is back at ‘RKO. Just as I predicted.

All hail industry expert, Stocky!!!!!!!

It’s hard to keep up with the drivel that appears on savewrko.com but Stocky will try.

Crack business analyst Brian Maloney brings us this scoop:

GREATER MEDIA SHAFTS ENTERCOM

Really? How so?

It seems tiny little privately owned Greater Media, owner of WTKK bought a couple of North Carolina Stations.

Big woop. How is that shafting Entercom? According to Brian, Entercom bid on those stations too.

According to Reuters, Entercom topped the firms favored to win control of these stations,

Except that’s not what Reuters said. The firm selling the stations, Lincoln Financial has all 18 of it’s radio stations up for sale. Entercom was just listed as 1 of 4 companies who were interested in “some” of the stations. Reuters and Brian have no idea whether the North Carolina stations were ones that Entercom MIGHT have been interested in.

It’s a grand canyon sized leap to get from being listed as 1 of 4 firms potentially interested in some of the 18 stations up for sale to saying that GREATER MEDIA SHAFTED ENTERCOM. But that’s Mr. Shrill with an axe to grind Brian Maloney for you.

He then goes on to speculate in another post that Howie Carr could end up at one of those stations.

That giant sucking sound you hear is the sound of money streaming out of Howie’s bank account as he contemplates the much much lower salary in Hicksville, USA. It’s stupid to even speculate on it but that doesn’t stop Brian.

Never mind the fact that HOWIE IS STILL UNDER CONTRACT TO ENTERCOM!

Let’s hear how Brian addresses that unfortunate fact:

But the million- dollar question is this: could a Howie Carr Show based in Charlotte be carried in Boston without causing more legal troubles with Entercom? Hard to say, but it might be possible, depending on the language.

Christ what a dope. The “million dollar question” is how does Howie get out of his Entercom contract without being sued into the poor house? And to speculate that a new show could air in Boston is just moronic.

We also hear from Brian that Howies potential “new job” could be TV. Setting aside the contract thing, TV is a possibility. But where? NECN could never pay enough.

What about a national cable show? MSNBC was considering one overweight loudmouth (Rosie O’Donnell) and their lineup is full of stiffs so A Howie show is not out of the realm of possibilities but let’s face it. Howie’s medium is Radio not TV.

That seems pretty unlikely too.

All in all it still looks like Howie back to WRKO. It shouldn’t take too much longer for them to kiss and make up.

We should hear soon.

Stocky apologizes for not keeping the updates on the amount of cake slipping through Howie’s fingers up to date.

Today I will get a little ahead of the game and assume 4 additional weeks of lost revenue since my last update. If Howie makes it back on the air by Wednesday, I will revise this post. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen though.

As of Wednesday of this week, Howie will have lost …

119,230.85 

Stocky doesn’t even want to guess how much Howie has spent on Lawyers in the last few months. This is money that is NEVER coming back. Each day that passes puts our Hero another day closer to retirement and his former listeners scattered acrosss other entertainment choices. When he comes back to WRKO, he won’t be meeting any of those ratings based bonuses anytime soon, if ever.

If you see an overweight, balding, pasty white man crawling on his knees towards Guest St. in Brighton, tin cup in hand, that would be Howie.

Speaking of tin cups, hopefully Howie will be able to continue his association with the Salvation Army. He’s almost due for his hour ringing the bell in Downtown Crossing. Maybe this year he can apply for a handout himself from the good folks at the S.A.

If all you did was read the shrill commentary at savewrko.com you would think that Entercom is one step away from Bankruptcy.

That is just not true.

On Wednesday Maloney posted about ETM hitting a new low of $16.67 along with a dire prediction of what was in store for the stock as earnings were about to be reported.

Quarterly earnings are due to be reported this week, so Wall Street obviously isn’t expecting much in the way of results.

First of all, what Brian fails to note is that while a fall to a new low for the stock is not good news it’s not the whole story. Management started paying dividends in 2006. In the last 2 years they’ve returned over $3 per share to shareholders. At an almost unheard of yield of more than 9%. If dividends are your thing, ETM is a pretty sweet looking stock.

Second of all, Brian couldn’t have been more wrong in his prediction for the rest of the week if his name was Mr. Wrongy Wrongenstein.

The last 2 days of the week ETM was up 10%, while the market itself was brutal. The S+P 500 was down 2% the last 2 days.

That includes a 6.46% gain on Friday after they reported earnings. Wall st very much liked what David Field had to say.

What did David Field have to say? A lot. In fact Boston/WEEI/WRKO were a big part of ETM’s conference call and Q3 results. Not that Brian would tell you that.

Some highlights taken from the conference call:

Third quarter performance was led by strong results in Seattle, Boston, Indianapolis and Milwaukee.

…

Q. your experience in Boston, it sounds as if you grew revenue against the grain of what I think most other media competitors there, newspaper and television and so on in the quarter which was a tough time there.

A. Yeah, Boston is again a direct perfect example of where our strategic focus pays off. We are doing well digitally, we are doing well with our business development.In fact, I mentioned on our last call a program we developed with Shaw’s Markets, which is the largest grocery chain in New England where we did a multi-platform integrated program with them, which has generated substantial incremental dollars that has kicked in over the last couple of months, and we’ll continue over the next couple of years.

And also on branding content side where we continue to invest in great content on our sports station, WEEI, which is the number one radio sports station in the United States, and in addition, investing in great content on our other properties in that market that has enabled our brands to stand strong. So yeah, at the time when Boston is a flattish market, we’ve been able to achieve significant growth as a direct result of those efforts.

And just as Stocky predicted (do I ever get a prediction wrong?) Howie Carr makes an appearance in the Conference call.

Q. A just one quick follow-up on WRKO. Could you tell about thought to us on how that land up — are you pleased with the progress there, when do we really see the ratings gains that we’ve seen in WRKO really translate to increases revenue there, and did WEEI suffer any revenue losses? Thanks.

A. Yes. We are thrilled with how WEEI has faired, namely even though we took of the Red Sox, our ratings have remained outstanding and so as predicted that’s worked out terrifically for us. WRKO situation is little different, because while the dishes was playing out, unfortunately we had a contract dispute with our number one personality who has been off the air for the last couple of months and had a high profile contract dispute over the course of the summer and I think that was meaningfully disruptive to both our advertising and to our listening strategies. We very much hope and expect to see a positive resolution to that situation, but it’s obviously put us behind schedule here, as we have sort of waited through that disruption.

There you have it. A 700 million dollar corporation is forced to try to explain why Howie is not honoring his contract. That probably sounds great to the likes of Fanboy Brian and Joy but to shareholders it sounds more like some fuckup (Howie) is stealing money out of their pockets.

Don’t think ETM’s legal staff is not working on this right now. They are. ETM management has a legal obligation to protect the shareholders. If a contract has been violated they have an obligation to try to recover damages.

Howie is in violation of his contract. A contract that has held up in court. He better get his ass back behind the Mic before ETM shareholders start calling for his scalp.

From Howie’s number 1 Fanboy Brian Maloney at savewrko.com we hear that Howie is “leaning” towards coming back to WRKO.

Oh, he’s leaning all right. Just like I’m leaning towards taking a dump soon. I don’t necessarily want to but I know I’m going to have to. It’s inevitable. Just like Howie on his knees in front of his Entercom Masters.

Maloney’s delusions bring back memories of Bahgdad Bob.

He also wants to avoid the degree of personal humiliation suffered by Dennis & Callahan, who tried to play hardball with Entercom and were crushed. That’s why he’s more likely to settle with them now, rather than fight an extended battle.

Howie has already been crushed by Entercom. I suspect that personal bankruptcy has more to do with Howie not wanting to fight an extended battle than anything else. And D+C’s “battle” with ETM is long forgotten by most listeners. They’ve been better than ever since they came back on the air.

Howie’s humiliation has had much more drama. Lisa Huges Interview, Howie invoking slavery, near daily reports in the press on the latest Howie courtroom beatdown.

Does the Hearth + Kettle serve Humble Pie?

Back to Fanboy:

He does have a potential departure option that does not involve WTKK or a contractual dispute with Entercom. The company is apparently aware of this.

Talk about burying the lead. Do tell, Brian. If you weren’t told what it is than at least use your “industry experience” to speculate on what it might be.

Poor old Stocky doesn’t have a clue.

Howie is under contract with Entercom. Short of coming back to work for Entercom he will likely be sued. Entercom has warned him of that. What could he possibly have up his sleeve that could trump that?

A buyout of his ETM contract and a promise not to compete with ETM properties???? That’s the only scenario that I can think of that “might” be acceptable to ETM. And even then the non-compete thing might not be enforceable so why would ETM agree to it? 

Sounds very fishy to me.

The main concession Howie is seeking is to knock off at least the last three years of his contract, in effect making him a short-timer upon his return to Guest Street. At the end of that abbreviated period, he would be free to go wherever he wants.

At LEAST 3 years??? His contract is 5 years. Does that mean he’s trying to get 4 years knocked off but will settle for 3 years?? Cut the Shit. ETM is holding a contract that has held up in court. Why would they waive 3 years of it so Howie can then go on a competing station? Who does Brian think is representing ETM? Howie’s lawyers?

The only thing ETM should be waving for Howie is a lawsuit over his head. The legal fees for them won’t even merrit a footnote in their financial statements. For Howie, it’s bankruptcy.

He also wants an end to the arrogant and counterproductive public statements by local managers, company attorneys and George Regan’s PR flunkies. That’s why both sides are suddenly so quiet.

You first Howie. Cue the Lisa Hughes interview.

There may be some additional concessions, but otherwise, he’s looking at pretty much the same pay package and timeslot upon his return.

Oh sure. ETM is anxiously sitting by the fax machine waiting to get the full list of concessions Howie is demanding. Give me a Fucking Break. Howie has 2 choices. Return to ‘RKO or go bankrupt.

And He better hope that ETM gives him his old pay package. If they stick to the WTKK contract, he’s fucked. He won’t be earning any of those ratings based bonuses anytime soon, if ever.  That contract was as delusional as Eddie Endleman thinking he was going to crush WEEI when he left. How’d that work out for Eddie?

The ultimate goal is to resume his show in a way that preserves his dignity. Does this deal accomplish that?

No. But keep pumping Brian. I’m sure you’ll spin the final result in favor of Howie. That’s what Fanboy’s do.

Let’s start with a Stocky “favorite”, Steve Bailey of The Boston Globe. In todays column, Stevie takes time off from committing felonies to write about the fascinating subject of The Massachusetts Business Court.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz …. oh, sorry. I dozed off there for a minute.

In the middle of an excruciatingly boring piece he inserts this non-sequetor:

 Let’s stipulate, as the lawyers might say, that Howie Carr is no van Gestel fan; after losing repeatedly in his court, the Boston Herald columnist is probably headed back to “indentured servitude” at WRKO-AM at more than $1 million a year. But beyond Howie, van Gestel is a judge with many fans, the person most responsible for turning the business session of the state’s Superior Court into the success it has become.

Nice little whack at Howie. What does it have to do with the reorganization of the Mass Business Court?

Not a fucking thing.

And of course Mr. Business Writer extrodinaire gets the salary figure wrong. No way Howie pulls in $1 mil per year anytime soon. His contract is incentive laden with a base salary that’s actually a pay cut. It’s not certain what time slot he’ll return to never mind if he’ll meet the high bars the incentive clauses have set. But that level of analysis of the situation by Bailey is pretty typical of his work. His thinking runs as deep as a soap dish.

For Moron #2 we go to our Hero Cap’n Carr. In this time of crisis it appears that Howie is regressing to his journalistic childhood. He’s writing columns about City Council races.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz … oh, sorry. I dozed off there for a minute.

Howie eloquently describes the level of interest in yesterdays election:

After days of being called “liar” and “sneak” and “coward,” the college boy from Harvard ousted Felix “No-Show” Arroyo from the City Council in an election 85 percent of voters took a pass on.

If 85% of the voters in Boston didn’t care about this election, what percentage of the Herald’s readership gives a Rats Ass about it? Less than 5%? Forget about that talk of Howie trying to get himself fired on purpose when he returns to ‘RKO, it looks like he’s trying to get himself fired from The Herald.

We get a hint of what Howie is doing with all his free time from an indication that he was actually out “pounding the pavement” for quotes last night.

I asked him if he had any final thoughts on Connolly.

“Nothing,” he said, chuckling. “Not tonight.”

Nice work, Paper Boy. I’m sure it was tough fighting off all your fellow scribes to get that exclusive quote.

Speaking of savewrko.com, we get to Moron #3. Brian Maloney. In a ridiculous jealousy laden post today he calls Tom Bradys lifestyle “borderline disgusting” and repeats the days ago refuted claim that Gisele Bundchen refuses to be paid in Dollars.

Do a little work Brian. Here is a quote from her manager:

But just a few minutes ago, CNBC Squawk Box producer Stephanie Landsman spoke by telephone with Anne Nelson, Bundchen’s manager.  Nelson tells us reports that Gisele wants to be paid in euros are “false.”   Nelson’s take: “Some idiot in Brazil reported something just to make news.”

Nelson points out that Gisele lives in New York City, and thus needs U.S. dollars for her big-city lifestyle.

And Tom Brady’s personal life is “disgusting”. He’d already broken up with his over the hill former girlfriend before she announced a couple of months later that she was pregnant. Can you say TRAPPED? She’s the one who is disgusting.

In a comment Maloney states that there are better ways to hedge than to play the currency markets. Do tell, oh investment guru. I suppose thousands of red blooded American currency traders are just disgusting Morons and un-American if they short the Dollar.

I guess Stocky is Un-American too for investing in all those sweet multinational energy services companies who don’t get paid in Dollars but make a killing when they convert the revenue to the sinking Dollar. 

Stick to your day job of wrongheaded commentary on the Boston Radio scene.

From Howie’s fellow Boston Herald staffer Jessica Heslam, we get a report via some radio trade publication called “All Access” that Howie is getting ready to call off the dogs.

When asked by Jessica to comment Howie responds with:

       Chirp, Chirp, Chirp …

You get the picture.

When Jessica asks the WRKO attorney to confirm a deal we get:

WRKO attorney Shep Davidson couldn’t confirm a deal.

Of course he couldn’t. It’s not done. YET. It will be though, you can bet on it. All that’s required is for some way to be devised for Howie to save face. As I posted weeks ago, I wouldn’t be totally surprised if Howie bounced the Felon from his morning slot. I wouldn’t give that too high of a probability though. Entercom is holding 4 aces, Howie has a pair of 2’s.

At this point he and his creditors should thank their lucky stars that WRKO is willing to take him back. He’d be royally fucked if the deal to come back to ‘RKO goes bad.

There’s a lot of nonsense going on at savewrko.com. And not just from Brian Maloney. Lots of comments about boycotting sponsors, Howie getting fired on purpose, etc.

Please. What a bunch of crap. Take it from an industry expert, Howie will be back with bells on. Loving life at RKO and cashing his fat paychecks. Because as Richard Gere/Mayo so eloquently put it in An Officer and a Gentlemen:

           “I’ve got no place else to go! No place else to go.”

Maybe we’ll hear that sound bite on Howies first day back. 

On another note, is Jessica Heslam as hot as her Herald photo looks? If so, how long before we start seeing her on TV? Seems a shame to waste all that journalistic talent writing for the Herald.

On a day when Bill Belicheck is looking for a little revenge for Tony Dungy’s comments comparing the Pats to Barry Bonds, we get Billy Bulger commenting on the mess our dear Cap’n Carr finds himself in.

A Globe Op-Ed piece on Howie’s mess by Joan Vennochi. Stocky is actually a fan of Joan, back from the days she used to be the go-to-gal on the Globe’s business pages. She has serious moonbat tendencies of course but she usually writes interesting and somewhat balanced pieces.

Joan goes straight for the Jugular with a quote from Billy Bulger who references an obscure French philosopher.

He’s “a donkey caught between two bales of hay,” noted Bulger, referencing a problem of decision-making that is named after the 14th-century French philosopher Jean Buridan.

Bulger must be beside himself with glee over Howie’s fate. Yet he still “deems it appropriate” to express himself like the erudite snob he is. Bulger still has scars from the day Congressman Dan Burton dropped an Edmund Burke quote on him like an anvil just prior to Bulgers disasterous testimony before congress.

This must take a lot of the sting out of that old wound.

Joan then shows her excellent grasp of the situation by noting that Howie will likely end up back at WRKO.

Carr will end up with one very lucrative bale, probably at WRKO-AM, the station he tried to leave.

That is what Stocky has been saying for months. What choice does Howie have? You don’t need to be an “Industry expert” like Brian Maloney at savewrko.com to see the obvious.

Brian is still sticking to his guns and claiming that WTKK will wait for Howie and would never consider hiring the now available Imus.

Brian, when Imus ends up back at WTKK and Howie at WRKO, I will annoint myself the “industry expert” and you can write about Entercoms daily stock moves. 

Brian is twisting himself in knots trying to defend his foolish “logic”. Saying recently:

Brian Maloney, an industry analyst and creator of the Radio Equalizer Web site, said the logical choice for Imus in the Hub is WRKO.

Umm, no. WRKO already has a morning show. A bad one, but one they are committed to. Or at least they are  committed to pay the Felon for the next few years.

WTKK does NOT have a morning show. Hmmmm, let’s see. what would be the “logical choice” for Imus?????

Christ. What moronic “Logic”.

Oh wait, according to Brain WTKK “quashed” the possibility of Imus returning. Let’s hear straight from WTKK:

Greater Media, which owns WTKK, said it’s “keeping all options open as we decide how to move forward.” 

That doesn’t sound like “Quashing” to me. But then, I’m not an “Industry Expert” like Brian.

Back to Joan. She quickly gets to the 4th quarter and she’s still got Tom Brady tossing bombs to Randy Moss.

Meanwhile, WRKO hopes Carr’s Boston Herald salary and earnings from the sale of “The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century” will only go so far in maintaining his lifestyle. “I have no idea what the Herald pays him, or what he’s getting from his book. But he has a second wife and kids in college. The compensation [at stake] is not nominal,” said Davidson.

Yes, yes. How true. This is what it boils down to. Dough-re-me. If there’s anything we know about our Hero Howie, it’s that he loves money almost as much as life itself. So, despite what he said in the Lisa Hughes interview, it IS about the money. It always is.  

A wife who works Real Estate, kids in college, a big house in Wellesley and years of legal bills staring him in the face must be making for some sleepless nights for our Cap’n. And if you think that lifestyle is not expensive, Stocky directs you to this recent Globe article.

This is a little too creepy for Stocky to go into in detail but if you care to do a little work yourself you’ll see that Howie needs to bring home more than Bacon every month. He needs an entire Pig farm.

Howie’s many, many enemies are still running up the score. What’s next? A sound bite of Mumbles Menino giving Howie advice? Maybe Joe Kennedy can offer him a job pumping oil this winter. Better yet, Joe-for-oil could offer to deliver some Hugo Chavez heating oil to Howie’s house.

There’s still plenty of time for more scoring in this game. Only Howie can call off the dogs.

Take the money. Go back to ‘RKO.

And LIKE IT!!!!

As I said in my very first post on the Howie situation, for someone like Howie who has spent his entire career ridiculing the misfortunes and missteps of others to find himself in this position is just laughable.

Especially since his current predicament was totally avoidable and entirely his own doing.

To Quote Dean Wormer: “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.” In Howies case it ends up being expensive. At week 4 the running total of lost money NEVER to be recovered (it’s gone, baby gone) is: 

84,615.45

Go back to RKO, Howie. This should be easier for you than it was for D+C. WEEI openly mocked those 2 loudmouths and they bent over and took the money. They weren’t even locked into a contract like you were. They could have gone on the air someplace else. For a lot less money, sure but they at least had that option. You have no options. You can’t go on the radio anywhere. You’re not very good on TV, not that NECN pays very well anyways. You could up your workload at the Herald to 4 columns a week but how much can you really make at the Herald?

Stop delaying the inevitable, cut your losses and go back.

Howie, the clock is ticking. Step away from the lawyers and get back to work for Entercom before your bank account gets hurt more than it already has.

Unlike Billy Bulger you have no monthly kiss in the mail to take care of you and your family. You need to actually work for a living. And it could very well be even worse than that. As todays globe points out:

Entercom has already put Carr on notice that he could be liable for significant damages if he doesn’t fulfill his contract.

Do you really want to start paying lawyers to defend that kind of lawsuit at the same time you’re paying lawyers to appeal yesterdays decision? On just your Boston Herald salary? As that clock ticks, the damages grow. You could lose everything you own. Well, not the Florida property, you + OJ got that covered, but everything else.

When is that next Tuition payment due? What’s the in-state rate for Umass Boston? Am I making this clear enough for you?

Take the money and go back to RKO. All of the people who will be laughing their asses off at you would do the same thing. Me included. So suck it up and go back to work. D+C did it and they are bigger loudmouths than you.

When you get back on the air trash the bosses and the company. It’ll be great for ratings:

“Talk radio is a different animal,” Fishkin said. A host disgruntled with the station “might make for good radio. It’s about getting the viewer interested, creating controversy, not being boring. Controversy goes a long way in talk radio.”

Howard Stern was at his best before he went into therapy when he was ranting and raving about his boss Tom “Cheapasano” and dissing everyone in management. More ratings makes for more Clam Plates for Howie.

Go ahead. Take the dough.

Remember the courtroom scene in the movie A Few Good Men where Tom Cruise objects to a question asked of a witness and the Judge quickly overrules the objection? Whereupon Demi Moore jumps up and says:

“Your Honor I *Strenuously* Object!!”

The Judge looks at her likes she’s a whack job and issues the same decision again overruling the objection.

That’s what Howie’s Lawyers looked like yesterday. The same arguments in front of the same Judge only this time they really, really, really meant it. Gosh darn it, they were strenuously objecting this time!!!!!

Just like in the movie, the Judge didn’t change his mind. He upheld his decision and issued a disdainful ruling which I take from Todays Globe:

“Carr is not, as he argues in his brief, ‘in essence [subject to] a lifetime employment agreement’ with Entercom,” the Judge wrote. “And wherever he legally finds himself, it is of his own conscious doing. He has not, as he publicly claims, been placed into some form of high-paid indentured servitude by this Court.”

Stocky loves the reference to Howie’s “indentured servitude”. For more on Howie’s slavery complex see my earlier Kunta Howie post.

What does all this mean? 2 things:

IMUS IN THE MORNING!!!!!!!! (on WTKK)

Howie takes the Entercom money. And likes it.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years about our Hero Cap’n Carr, it’s his love of money.  

How much money is a big question. The Globe story says todays ruling “ratchets up Howies salary” by forcing RKO to match the WTKK offer but that offer was full of incentives based on ratings. It’s also unclear whether the morning drive time slot is considered part of the contract that RKO must match.

One possible scenario for Howie to save face and make his WRKO comeback would be for RKO to dump his nemesis Tom Finneran and let Howie have the morning drive slot for what he can claim is a much bigger salary.

Stocky admits that scenario is fairly unlikely but it’s not impossible. Could they move the Felon to afternoon drive? Would his probation officer need to approve that change in work hours???

Still lots of questions left unanswered. 
 

Brian Maloney has another post up on Howie Carr. In it he contends that WTKK “quashed” rumors of an Imus return.

In another way, Greater has also positioned itself well: recent rumors that Don Imus might return to WTKK were quickly quashed. Instead, the company says it will wait for Howie’s legal battle to end.

Stocky is unsure how you could conclude that committing to waiting for Howie’s legal battles to end translates to “positioning itself well”. The legal battle could drag on for months. Waiting for that is a good position????

Contradicting himself in the very next graph Maloney says:

But WTKK desperately needs Howie Carr to join its lineup as soon as possible.

So how does commiting to waiting potentially months make them “well positioned”? What they need is someone other than a Temp in the morning slot. And they need it yesterday.

I still say that unless Howie settles and/or wins his case quickly with WRKO it will be Imus in the morning on WTKK.

But WTKK “QUASHED” that rumor, right? No. They didn’t. Here is the quote from a Jessica Heslam blog entry that Stocky missed. Just the title of the link should tell you what you need to know: “No-imus-for-now”

When asked if Imus could return to WTKK, station spokeswoman Heidi Raphael said today: “As you know, we are pursuing another avenue for mornings and we expect to prevail.”

That’s “QUASHED”???? Where in that answer did they say No? Maloney falls for the baloney but Stocky won’t.

Let me translate that for you: Howie better win his case ASAP or it’s Imus on WTKK.

Howie oh Howie. Wherefore art thou Howie????

Awful quiet on the Howie front. No leaked stories to the press from either side.

Hmmmmm. No idea what this means.

I still see Howie back at WRKO. He’ll take the money. What choice does he have?

We are now past week 3 of what should have been Howie’s new job at WTKK. The running total of lost wages is:

 75,961.55

Looking at that number my thought was “That’s a lot of fried clam plates”.

How many? Good question.

A delicious Clam plate at Kelly’s is $16.95. Add a Frappe for $3.95 and a large Coke (Diet, of course) for $1.95 and you get a total of $22.85.

Add the typical Howie tip and you end up with a total of $22.85.

That ends up being 3,324 Fried Clam Plates.

Put in perspective that comes to 1 fried clam plate a day for the next 9 years, 5 weeks and 1 day. (Howie, if you’re checking my math and why wouldn’t you, what else do you have to do, don’t forget the leap years.)

Despite what you may be thinking, it gives Stocky no joy to report this. I’m just serving the public.

That description of Imus is courtesy of Brian Maloney at savewrko.com. While I don’t quibble with the description I do disagree with his conclusion. That Imus is too old to be a contender for his old position at WTKK.

The arguments against that are many:

Imus’ last contract still had several years left on it when he got fired so a new 5 year deal won’t run that much longer than his last deal. He received a multi-million dollar settlement from that contract. If he was too old + tired to continue he could easily retire with plenty of cake.

The Citadel contract has to be at least 3 years if not 5. Citadel will put him on scores if not hundreds of it’s own stations. Why wouldn’t WTKK?

Boston was one of Imus’ few major markets. By his standards he did pretty well here. You know Citadel will be shopping him to someone in Boston. Let’s see …. which talk station in Boston does not have a morning show???? Hmmmm, WTKK!!!!

Brian thinks that since Howie has 5-10 years left, WTKK will sit around and wait for Howies legal issues to get settled. That’s absurd. Howies situation could drag on for months and ultimately could end up with Howie not being allowed to work for WTKK. In the meantime WTKK’s ratings/revenues sink. What manager would risk their job by sitting on their asses and waiting for Howie.

The safe choice is to go with the known quantity. Imus.  

And as old and rapidly aging as Imus is, don’t forget about his wife. Without Imus on the air she goes back to being just another almost pretty blonde with a geezer husband waiting for her inheritance.

Before Imus got canned she had appearances on Oprah + Martha Stewart lined up to promote some dopy book she supposedly wrote. Imus probably needs to get back on the air just so he can get laid again.

She will make sure he works until the day he drops because once his fame is over so is hers.

They both could be getting Fucked by Don Imus.

In Deirdre’s case it’s dependant on Don’s Viagra prescrition staying current.

In Howie’s case it’s the new Imus/Citadel broadcasting deal.

As Drudge initially reported and Howie Kurtz follows up on, Imus is ready to strike a deal with Citadel.

Citadel Broadcasting, which owns 243 radio stations, including ABC Radio Networks, plans to put the I-Man in the morning slot on the powerhouse New York station WABC, the source said. The program would be offered in syndication to other stations around the country.

Italics added by Stocky.

It just so happens that Citadel does not own a Boston station. Imus, as untalented as he is, was still “successful” in Boston on … wait what was the station he was on …. WTKK!!!

You know the WTKK folks have to be considering cutting their losses and picking up Imus again. Imus is likely to come a lot cheaper this time around so if he was worth it before why wouldn’t he be worth it now for less money?

Citadel has a bunch of small stations that ring Boston who no doubt will have Imus on so why not syndicate him out to WTKK and “dominate” the dim-witted shut-in demo that Imus brings you?

It makes perfect sense.

The only potential problem is if Imus doesn’t want to screw a good friend like Howie.

Oh, Wait. HOWIE SUED IMUS AND WON!!! (at least his wife did)

Don’t think that old geezer Imus is too far gone to remember and don’t think he wouldn’t love to stick it to our man Howie.

Where does that leave our hero Cap’n Carr??

It leaves him pulling a D+C and crawling back to WRKO. Without the WTKK morning slot what is he going to do? Take the money of course. And like it.

And don’t think WRKO hasn’t considered this scenario. They are still operating as if Howie is coming back. I think he is.

Lots of Howie Coverage at savewrko.com but you heard this here first.

Well, here we are at what should have been the 10th day on the air for The Cap’n. Time to add another weeks paycheck relegated to the dustbin of Howie history.

Added to week 1 and the lost Oct 1 starting bonus it’s with a heavy heart that Stocky brings you:

67,307.70

{Insert Dr. Smith Voice Here} Oh, the Pain!!!

With the Cap’n down to only 1 paycheck, it’s hard to imagine that he won’t come crawling back to WRKO like D+C did to WEEI. 

Who has deeper pockets, WRKO or Howie?

Reportedly, Howie would have scored a $50K bonus if he was on the air at WTKK by Oct 1, 2007.

It’s now Oct 2nd and no Howie on WTKK.

As Bill Clinton would say, “I feel your pain, Howie”.

50 large. That’s gonna leave a mark.

How long can Howie go before he pulls a D+C?

If you’re keeping score at home, our 1 1/2 week total is:

58,653.85

That’s a lot of fried clams. It’s hard to imagine that Howie could go back on the air at WRKO but the same was said of D+C on WEEI. It seems unlikely but it’s not impossible.

If Howie loses the court case(s) what other choice will he have?

No, I’m not talking about my posts. I’m talking about some shots being fired from the surprising Boston Magazine.

What makes Boston Magazine surprising to Stocky is that it’s still being published. Back in the day their annual “Worst of Boston” issue was a must read. Before Al Gore invented the interweb, poor schlubs who got crappy service from a waiter or had their dry cleaner lose part of their order had nowhere to vent. To see restaurants and Dry Cleaners raked over the coals in the WOB issue was a rare chance for the “common man” to be heard.

Back in those days our man Howie also contributed to the Mag.

Alas + Alack, those days are long gone. The “Worst of Boston” issue has been “modified” to only include the “Best of Boston”. What it should be called is “Our Favorite Advertising Clients” issue. Not all of the Best of Boston businesses advertise with BMAG of course but without the “Worst of” list BMAG avoids pissing off their most important paying customers.

The advertisers, not you dopes who buy the Mag.

Brian Maloney from savewrko.com calls our attention to a blog post from John Gonzales at BMAG. Who is John Gonzales? Good question. Stocky has never heard of him but something tells me he’s got good fashion sense, his apartment is appointed wonderfully, he loves show tunes and he’s very close to his Mom.

But that’s just a guess.

Johnny takes some shots at Howie and his listeners. As is typical for a “progressive” and  ”tolerant” person like him he sterotypes all Howie’s listeners as redneck, bigoted, homophobic xenophobes. Oh wait. He didn’t say anything about homophobic. Hmmmm, I wonder why he skipped that????

Typical of the elitist moonbat that he is, Johnny is too busy spewing moonbat talking points to get his facts straight.

Howie does not have a “Whiner Line”. It’s the Chump line. A little history lesson is in order here. Howie explained the genesis of the Chump line one day on the air. As Howie tells it he was listening to Howard Stern’s show; Stern was going on the air with a new station the following week and he had that stations GM on the air playing the nasty voice mails he’d gotten after the station announced the switch from music to Stern.

Stern listened to the voice mails pausing to comment on each one. That gave Howie the idea to launch the Chump Line. The Chump Line predated the Whiner Line despite what helium gun sucking Glenn Ordway says.

D + C tried to glom onto this concept with their ill-fated Dump Line. They promo’d it by asking their listeners to “Take their morning Dump.” 

To put it kindly, the quality of the “Dumps” was pretty weak and the Dump Line was quickly relegated to the Dustbin of Talk Radio history.

No doubt the fact that the Dump Line was not played until just before the show ended at 10:00 AM had a lot to do with the poor quality of the calls. Who can listen to the radio at 10:00 AM? Most of us are working so why call in a message that you’ll never get to hear on the air?

Back to Johnny. He’s obviously not bright enough to keep 2 afternoon talk radio shows straight but that doesn’t stop him from calling all of Howie’s listeners rednecks and bigots.

That’s not unusual in the “reality based” moonbat community. Stocky recalls a segment on Emily Rooneys PBS show several years ago where the topic was Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. This was the Friday show called “Beat the Press” where 5 moonbats spend 5-10 minutes pontificating about 3 or 4 “media based” topics of the week.

If I recall correctly it was Emily, Dan Kennedy, Callie Crossley, John Carrol and 1 more whi I can’t remember. They spent about 10 minutes taking turns spouting banalities about Rush and his show. I remember wondering if any of them had ever actually listened to the show. I got my answer when John Carrol ended the segment with a statement along the lines of “and it’s amazing that Limbaugh can hold an audience for so long given the fact that he doesn’t take phone calls during his 3 hour show”. The rest of them all tut-tutted in agreement.

I swear I’m not making that up. Like Johnny they spewed nonsense about a show they’d never even listened to.

Now that I’m done defending Howie I can get back to calculating how much money he’s lost so far. Look for a Post early next week. Hint: Bonus clause!!!!!!!!

   8,653.85

Our man Howie Carr finds himself in an awful position. He’s down to only 1 job which is basically a part time job. 3 columns a week at The Boston Herald.

That’s the type of workload a Massachusetts Judge would envy.

Howie fills us in with some details on what he’s doing with all his newly aquired free time in todays column:

So 10 days ago I got to be a judge at the Ipswich Lions Club ChowderFest.

…

I got an invite yesterday to judge another North Shore chowderfest next month and I’ll be there - with bumper stickers, lots of bumper stickers, direct from Merlin Printing in New Hampshire. See you there.

I wonder how much they pay to be a chowderfest judge? And to think Howie is probably at the peak of his fame. How can Stocky get in contact with Howies Agent? He sounds like a real go-getter.

Of course in Howies circle of advisors his agent is know as “the smart one”. His legal team makes some of those Dolts in the legislature look bright.

As documented before here, Howie finds himself down to 1 job due to the ineptness of his legal team. According to legal analysts with IQ’s above room temperature, all Howie had to do was wait until his contact with WRKO expired on Sept 19th before signing the new deal with WTKK. Simple.

If only Howie were on the air to talk about this. He could tell us for the 78th time, the story about meeting Rupert Murdoch where Rupert complimented him on getting out of the newspaper business. He always adds a comment about needing more than 1 job.

Now our Hero is left only with The Boston Herald as a means to support his Wellesley lifestyle.

Is there any of that Don Imus money left?

Do you think Felon Finneran could float him a loan until “pay day”? Or is Tommy taxes too busy laughing his ass off?

Will he be forced to drive only cars he paid for?

Oh the horror.

Today should have been the end of his first week on the new job. According to many published reports, he should be looking at a pay check of $8,653.85.

Ouch. 

For someone like Howie who is obsessed with money, his own and everyone elses; he must be longing for this paycheck the way a State Worker longs for a Holiday in August.

Stocky will be keeping a running week by week total of the cake Howie is losing.

How long before He + WRKO “settle” this dispute? (Translation, Howie/WTKK forks over some cash)

Not too long is my guess.

I have a dream. One day Howie Carr will be judged based on the content of his character and not the quality of his legal representation.

Howie, what the Fuck?

Will Tom Finneran be taking any sick leave to recover from injuries sustained from days of laughing hysterically? Maybe you can fill in for him while he’s out. That would give you the “morning drive” slot you want at least until Tommy Taxes stops laughing at you.

For a guy like Howie Carr who has spent his entire career ridiculing the missteps and misfortunes of others to find himself in this position is just too much. To paraphrase Howie, paraphrasing someone else, “It would take a heart of stone not to laugh”.

Stocky is a big Howie fan but even I can’t help but laugh.

Despite what Howie’s flack would have you believe, he got his ass kicked in court yesterday. From the judges written decisions it appears that Howies legal team was not even competent enough to get the proper questions before the court. Assuming that someday they succeed in getting the judge to look at the proper issue who thinks they’re competent enough to argue effectively? Not me.

Geeze, what Dopes.

The judges decision is desribed best in todays Boston Herald.

The whole sordid mess has been chronicled at savewrko.com.

The aftermath of the court decison was advanced best by WBZ TV’s Lisa Hughes in a 21 minute video interview  of Howie posted on their web site.

In the interview Howie compares his $700K per year job at WRKO as Slavery. When pressed on that by Hughes he backs off but only a little.

Slavery??? Give me a fucking break. How many times did Howie rightfully ridicule the Gay lobby when they compared Gay marriage to the civil rights fights of the 60’s? Answer: A lot.

To hear Howie whine about slavery is pretty tough to take.

Other than the slavery thing it’s a very good interview. Hughes does a nice job. Who knew she wasn’t just another news reader Bimbo?

It remains to be seen if Howie will pull a D+C and just take the money or if he’ll drag this fight out to the end.