text:
Front Page - Mailbag - BW2012 - BW2011 - BW2010 - BW2009 - BW2008 - BW2007 - BW2006 - BW2005 - BW2004 - BW2003 - BW2002 - BW2001 - BW2000
BEST: Chris Plante, Mornings on the Mall, FOX5 News @ 5pm.
WORST: Bryan Nehman leaving WMAL, Red Eye Radio.
Feliz Navidad (Belated)! -Silvie in Waldorf-
Best: Channel 4 News, Hillary Howard, Cerphe's Progressive Show on Ecoplanet Radio, Mike Kelly, Gordon Peterson, Leon Harris, Frank (the real voice of the Redskins) Herzog
Worst: Larry Michaels, WMAL, Cancelling of Inside Washington
Best: Dave Johnson is a man with many skills, who virtually does it when it comes to sports, and does them all very well. Dave has absolute great sports coverage in the mornings at WTOP, and he also does outstanding work with covering games for the Washington Wizards and D.C. United, as well as Comcast Sportsnet (CSN) Washington. Dave and Glenn Consor are at their best doing Wizards games, both home and on the road. Big props to Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier for their continued outstanding work on CSN Washington. Great work, once again for the team at WJLA Sports, with Tim Brant, Britt McHenry, Horace Holmes, Glenn Harris, Alex Parker and Terry Cornwell. Special kudos, also, to Glenn Harris, on his recovery from his stroke. Hang in there, Glenn! Also, Julie Parker and Alex Parker, with their 'Parker and Parker' Show, on Sports Talk, is greatly missed, as well as Craig Carnell who 'mans the fort' at WJLA, too. Salutes to Greg Toland for his great work at CSN Washington. Kudos go out to all the local news teams of NBC 4, FOX 5, ABC 7, and WUSA 9, too, all who work tirelessly to keep the entire D.C. metro area up-to-date with late breaking news. Both the Washington Post and Washington Times sports desks, with a ton of talent who are always on top of the Washington sports scene. Grant Paulsen, the 'man on the job', covering pulse of the Washington Redskins. Salutes to Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin for their coverage of the Caps. Rich Chvotkin's "HOYAS WIN!" gives me thrills every time I hear him say it. Phil Wood is always right 'on base' with his coverage of both the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles. Johnny Holliday, who does University of Maryland football and basketball is one of the best, ever. Johnny and Ray Knight both give great analysis of Washington Nationals games during the season. Diane Roberts, who is a woman with unique skills and talent at both WUSA and Sirius/XM Radio. Chick Hernandez leads the team at CSN Washington. Greg Wyshynski, as 'Puck Daddy' for Yahoo Sports, is one of the best with his coverage of hockey, who's headed to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Lukas Favale and Matt Krause for their outstanding Stretch Internet radio coverage of the Alexandria Aces of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League, who are some of the best up-and-coming broadcasters in the business. And 'shouts out' to Wes Johnson, who besides doing a ton of commercials on both radio and television in the D.C. market, also is the outstanding Washington Capitals public address announcer during their home games at Verizon Center. Andy Ockershausen, who is the absolute best with CSN Washington, and Charlie Brotman, another champion, who continues to lead his team to shine at many sporting events throughout the year. Lastly, I tip my cap to everyone in the D.C. market who covers sports, a job which isn't easy, by any stretch. Always keep swinging for the fences!
Worst: The worst? My list could be long, but what's the point? Like the bartender always says as the lights get turned up, "It's closing time", and I leave my tip on the bar, wave good bye, and head back to Alexandria, into the night. Have a great 2014, everyone! I'll see you sometime soon! Pat Malone, Alexandria, Virginia
BEST - WBAL, Donna Hamilton (class act), Ava Marie (very likeable), Sarah Caldwell (good job on anchor desk), Lauren Cook (best traffic on-air & online), Mike Masco (pleasure to watch). WMAR (major improvements).
WORST - Marty Bass, Fox45, Candace Dold, Jonathan Myers
BEST: Jim and Doreen, Alison Starling, Derek McGinty, Lesli Foster, Erica Grow, WBAL 11 Morning News Team, in particular, Sarah Caldwell
WORST: Andy Pollin taken off the afternoon Sports Reporters on WTEM. Awful decision by the brass at Red Zebra. The Ghost of Joe Paterno on WTEM. not funny, not classy, and the impression of JoePa is awful. And last but not least, Tony Perkins on FOX5, go back to GMA....please
Best: Mr. Tony; John Feinstein's Friday appearance with the Junkies; Audio Now on WTEM (listening to a Maryland Terps basketball game on my "dumbphone" while waiting to get into a club in Austin, Texas was pretty cool in my opinion); Andy Pollin's new show on WSPZ; Charlie and Dave on the Nats broadcasts; Davey Johnson's weekly appearance with the Junkies; WINC's carrying of the Classic American Top 40 The 80's on Saturday mornings; Moose and Maggie on Saturday mornings on WJFK; The return of Don Geronimo to the local airwaves (here's hoping he gets a regular slot that doesn't get pre-empted virtually every night); Bluegrass Country (before Ray Davis left); The Sunday Morning Acoustic Show on WIAD; Redskin Showtime on WRC TV which is a throwback to the old days of George Michael's Redskin Report; Rich Chvotkin...HOYAS WIN, HOYAS WIN, HOYAS WIN, (and I'm a Terp fan and generally can't stand Georgetown).
Worst: No more Ray Davis on Bluegrass Country; Elimination of newscasts on the half hour during the "LDY Show" on WPOC; No more Marty Bass on the "LDY Show" (I know this is from '12 but I forgot it last year); No more Pat Goss on WJFK; No more Robert Wuhl show on WSPZ; Only getting one hour locally of "The Steve Czaban Show"; No more local outlet for Fox Sports Radio especially their goofy Sunday afternoon NFL show with Ben Maller and Tomm Looney; The demise of the "Kevin and Rock" show on WJFK; No local DC-area radio coverage of the NASCAR races (WFLS's signal is spotty in Montgomery County); WFLS's decision to quit carrying "NASCAR Live" on Tuesday nights; Elliott In The Morning moving to NYC.
Tom in Wheaton
Worst: Larry Michaels (he makes Fox's fourth and fifth teamers sound like Emmy candidates), the morning traffic ladies on WRC and WJLA (neither gives any glimmer that they know who they are talking to), WRC's 10:25 A.M. news update during the Today Show, Red Zebra's inability to carry the live feed of the Steve Czaban show on any of its local outlets, Red Zebra's WSPZ repeatedly starting commercial pods in the middle of segments of Andy Polley's Sports Reporters, news directors of all local stations who send a reporter and cameraman to a local bar to cover the reaction of Skins/Caps/Nats/Wiz fans to the game, WUSA displaying a big honking logo during every second of the Bounce Network on 9.2 (including commercials)
Best: CBS flipping WJFK-AM to CBS Sports Radio Network shortly after picking up Jim Rome's radio show and providing the strongest DC signal for Rome in years, Mr. Tony, Tom Kierein, News Corp flipping 20.2 to Movies Network.
Hi Dave! Happy New Year! Thank You for giving us DCRTV and also including Baltimore in your coverage.
I'll Give you the worst first: WMAR ABC 2 for not having a sports person and a weekend newscast that is very thin. The people at 2 are great, it's E.W. Scripts corporate that is at fault. All the money goes to Cleveland and Detroit and not B'More---oh well. ALSO,why don't they do something with their sub channels like Antenna TV? Who the heck needs infomercial city a.k.a. Live Well Network. CBS Baltimore always for killing the oldies format on WQSR for Jack-ASS-FM,a job and audience killer. I will never forgive them for that! The F.C.C. for selling out to the cell companies and making it very difficult for those of us dependent on over the air reception. Thankfully I found a decent OTA antenna,The MOHU Ultimate. Clear Channel for limiting access to their stations when you listen using an internet radio. I have an internet radio with the IHEART app. and I can only get a slim selection of Clear Channel stations----the ones they allow. They are supposed to correct that with the release of a software update soon I'm told,however not holding my breath. Clear Channel again for killing oldies 93.1 in Sacramento,Ca. for a news/talk simulcast of 1530 KFBK-Ugh!!!
Now the Best: DCRTV! WBAL-TV and Hearst for their news programming and for picking up ME-TV! Grace Digital Audio for making the coolest internet radio devices! They also have the greatest and nicest customer service people-----Wonderful people to do business with!
All The Best Dave in 2014 and Always! Thanks Man! Nick Lemonakis
Best: The all-female anchor team of ABC7's "Good Morning Washington"; "Good Morning Washington" itself; Steve Chenevey's return to FOX5; FOX5's newscasts; weather on NBC4, FOX5 & ABC7; NewsChannel 8 on DIRECTV; Fresh FM; 98.7 WMZQ; HOT 99-5; WTOP
Worst: wusa*9 (the whole station & its own newscasts); "PBS Newshour"; Cozi TV; 99.1 WNEW; Mix/All The Hits 107-3; "The Bert Show"; "Sports Talk Live with Brian Mitchell" (since 09/03/13); "GEICO SportsNet Central" (since 09/03/13); Washington Redskins' regular season games on television
Best: WTMD and their new digs, WXPN, WGAY on the web Fridays at 9PM, SXM's The Loft, WAMU's Bluegrass Country, WTOP's The Gamut, WPFW, WFUV, The News Hour, Rachel Maddow, Ed Shultz, Ch. 4 News. & Ch. 9 Weather.
Worst: WMAL, FOX News, Religious Broadcasters who use the airwaves to amass personal fortunes from gullible people tax free, Liberty University's Translators, No AAA public radio station in DC, Bob Ryan retiring, Ch 7 being purchased by Sinclair, Corporate Radio in general.
Bob Fairfax
BEST: Frank Herzog's rant regarding the disastrous regime of Dan Snyder...
WORST: Frank Herzog ruining any remote shot (like Larry Michael losing his job for any number of legimate reasons)of returning and reclaiming his crown as the true Voice of the Skins...
Best: All News Anchors: Stacy Lynn, Evan Haning, & Chas Henry (WNEW) Debra Feinstein, Mike Moss, Bruce Alan, Hillary Howard (although nobody has any right to be as perpetually happy as she!), and basically the rest of WTOP with a special Honorable Mention for Joan Jones. Debra Feinstein is the hottest local news anchor since Cynthia Hecht hung up her headphones ages ago; Oldies Station –WKCW… WMOD, WXTR, and WBIG never played "Wonderful Land" by The Shadows. WKCW does. With a real signal, promotion, and sales, they could make a serious impact in this market. But, it's like they're not trying. Bruce San Antonio is no idiot. He knows how to run a successful radio station. He just needs a signal. He hasn't had a real one since "The Great 98" And, WKCW is not and never has had a competitive signal; All News Radio Station –None; Local TV News -WRC on channel 48. Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, and Wendy Rieger do a good job of carrying the old channel 4 torch up on UHF. Runner-up WJLA-7. It'll be interesting to see what Sinclair does with the place one they get it. Which they will…; Local TV Weather: Doug (of Doom) Hill, Sue Palka, and Howard Bernstein. If Sinclair is serious about news in D.C., they would snatch Howard Bernstein for channel 7 as backup for Doug. Better yet, grab Sue Palka as well and you'd build a "weather dream team" while building a "news dream team". Special Honorable Mention for Lauryn Ricketts of WJLA; Radio Station -None; Move by an Otherwise Incompetent Owner –Cumulus dumping Sean Hannity. Not just here, but "everywhere" (See "Worst" for more); Talk Show Host –Don Crow on WAVA. Even if he disagrees with you, he'll do so with dignity, respect, and humor. Promising Runner-up goes to Dan Bonginio who subs for seemingly every "conservative" talker when they take a day off. The guy would do well to give up his failed political career for talk radio. He's genuine, entertaining and doesn't have cranial rectosis like so many "conservative" talkers. He could easily become this generation's Arnold Zenker; Local DJ –Loo Katz on WASH. The guy deserves a much better gig than what he has right now; Local Radio Newsperson (not All News) –Bill Thompson on WMAL. Another pro who deserves a much better gig than what he currently has. He would be a great replacement for "Bob Madigan" on WTOP; Transitions Out of a Floundering WTOP -Hank Silverberg & Adam Tuss for going over to WUSA-9 and WRC-48, respectively. One thing about Laurie is that she'll enable the old folks to quickly discover how valuable they are to someone else! Laurie should keep in mind what a girlfriend of mine recently said about me when she called me an "antique"! "Think about what an antique really is: Something someone found to be useless and threw away only to become someone else's valued and cherished treasure." (Pity those blue pills only help in the bedroom and not in the air studio… Yes, I was scared when the GF said her .-.-.- was late! (Only the old time hams will understand that last part!)); Sports on Local Radio – Dave Johnson on WTOP and Charlie Slowes on the Nationals Network. These guys are good. Damned good. Why they aren't in a major market is ponderous; Christian Radio Station –WFAX once again with honorable mentions for "commercial" WGTS and commercial WRBS. The latter is a textbook case study of everything that a Christian radio station should (and needs) to be; Media Website –We have a tie! The uber-liberal Drudge Report and DCRTV.com; Quote on local radio –Frank Herzog while being interviewed on WTOP calling Dan Snyder a "jock sniffer"; Part of 2013? That it's finally over, thank God!
Worst: Loss –Mac McGarry. Mac was a Washington institution and his passing marked the end of serious local broadcasting in this market. I believe he was also the last WNBW veteran. I want to thank Mac's family for sharing him with us and with the greater Washington and Baltimore communities for so many decades; All News Station -WNEW & WTOP (tie)… WNEW needs consistency. Having a pro like Chas Henry being followed by a guy who sounds not ready for carrier current shows the absence of management and supervision. In other words, nobody there cares! When WNEW sounds good, they're great. But, all too often they sound like the local cut-ins on a market #136 affiliate of the old NBC National News and Information Service. Jim Farley could talk for hours about how bad NNIS affiliates could sound! WTOP's quest for "happy news" reminds me of "smiling" Charlie Crawford on WTOP-TV, who always smiled no matter the story –even the weekly casualty reports during the Viet Nam War. WTOP is being dumbed-down to where it would be easy pickings for a competent competitor. Right now, WNEW is not that competitor. WNEW needs a predictable and tight wheel with world & national news at the top and bottom of the hour… preferably off a real network at H:00. There's also the matter of promotion. WNEW's promotion efforts at present are only exceeded by those of WWRC. WNEW also needs to stop whoring itself out so much. In the movie "Return of the Killer Tomatoes", it's funny. But, for an all news station, it's unprofessional at best and repulsive at worst. As for what's wrong with WTOP, so many others have already listed here its manifold ills that I'll not repeat them. WTOP hired the wrong New Yorker to fix the place. Crys Quimby would've been a much better choice than Laurie Cantillio. Don't get me wrong. Laurie could've done wonders to fix WMAL. But, she's going to slowly kill WTOP; Local Station Deal –The Allbritton Stations to Sinclair. Sinclair way overpaid for stations which, with the exception of WJLA, are a bunch of micro-market junk to pico-market crap. ABC was right to say "no thanks". This deal shouldn't have gone for more than $350M to $450M –with about 85% of it for WJLA. Were it not for Bob Albritton's tight-fisted management, some of the other stations could easily qualify for "failing station" status with the FCC. If Sinclair had anything resembling a real Board of Directors, they would be asking "WTF?" on this buy. This is a classic example of what some call "It's like land. And, they're not making any more." It was a panic bid and buy. Sinclair panicked in that they were bound and determined to get this buy, regardless of the cost. Reminds me of when Dan Snyder was looking to buy radio stations. Imagine what would happen if a network affiliate in a real major market were to come up for sale? How much debt would Sinclair be willing to take on to buy it? (What I'm waiting for is what happens to Sunbeam when Ed Ansin dies and WHDH-7 is up for grabs. I'm predicting an unprecedented bidding war between Comcast/NBC-Universal and… Sinclair!) Except for legitimate concerns about re-trans costs, I find most of the protests on this transfer to be highly specious at best. The only thing that will happen is that the news on ABC7 in D.C. will only be slightly less liberal than on the other stations. It might surprise, but it will be less "stridently conservative" than WTTG-36. As for "diversity" of community/news voices being lost, that's also a specious argument when one looks at the number of American cities which lack a daily newspaper. If the economics were there to support a business case for "diversity", you would have the additional "news voices". Close runner-up is Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post for $350M more than its true value; FCC Idea… There are so many that it's tough to pick just one. My nominee this year is the FCC's FM band packing plan. Between "translators" which have no technical need to exist ,LPFM's, and "HD-Radio", it won't be long before FM sounds as bad as AM… if not worse; Locality for Cable TV –Fairfax County by a landslide! Most of the county has Cox, while Reston seems to be treated by the county at best as a red-haired bastard stepchild by forcing a choice between Comcast or FiOS. Cox seems to have a lot of technical stuff that Comcrap lacks. But, the strong suit for Cox appears to be something very subtle. Customer Service, which is non-existent at Comcast. I was recently at a party at a friend's house watching a football game when the cable went out. While my friend was still on the phone with Cox (Call was answered on the third ring, BTW), we saw one of their trucks going by. The cable was back up within minutes! Would that happen with Comcast? Other than their hidden and difficult to find office, Comcast seems to have no presence in Reston. Do they even have dedicated technical service employees working in Reston? Does the Fairfax County government even care? I have to ask as when I've been to Reston, I've seen Comcast cherrypicker trucks which to me means they must be coming out of Dale City, Manassas, or perhaps Alexandria where the wiring is overhead while most if not all of Reston is underground. OTOH, Cox is accessible to such as degree that when compared to Comcast, the accessibility is almost aggressive. Where Comcast is hidden in the back of an office/industrial park, Cox is in your face with "stores" either in or adjacent to shopping centers. For whatever its reasons may be, Cox doesn't "hide" while Comcast seems to go out of its way to be inaccessible. Cox seems to tout its J.D. Power awards every chance it gets, while a few years back Comcast won the "Worst Company in America" accolade from the "Cousumerist" website. In all fairness, the county should condemn the Comcast system in Reston and encourage Cox to buy it at a "fire sale" price. I say that because God only knows what Cox would have to do to sanitize it to bring the Reston system up to something even resembling what the rest of Fairfax County probably takes for granted and likely bitches about. Also, the Verizon FiOS "All Fiber" claim is such total bullshit that I'm surprised the FTC allows the advertizing. It's HFC, just like nearly every other cable system. In the home of every FiOS friend I have, I see a Motorola converter just like the ones in how many CATV systems? And going to the converter is RG-6 coax! So, where's the "all-fiber"? Perspiring minds want to know! FTC and local cable regulating agencies, are you listening?; Local TV News WUSA-9. It's not just the news. The station itself needs serious help. Does Gannett have a 21st century Hank Yaggi to save WUSA from itself? WUSA is to local TV what WAVA is to local FM radio: A station which makes a ton of money but is underachieving as a local broadcast outlet. The J.C. Hayward mess is but a small distraction when what is needed is an AED followed by CPR at a once almost great station. Right now, WUSA is on life-support at best. The station needs more than just "Eyewitness News", "The One and Only", etc. It is absent and adrift; Local Weather Person -Topper Shutt. He has so many bags under his eyes airlines probably charge him extra fees for them. Had Doug Hill not gone to WJLA, Topper wouldn't be "Chief Meteorologist" at WUSA. While he's improved, his on-air image still reeks of micro-market WFMY-TV in Greensboro, from whence he came. Then again, he is on a par with the Gannett "corporate meteorologist", Jim Gandy who I believe works out of market #77 or something like that. That is another reason why D.C. is not a "major broadcast market" or anything to be taken seriously; Local Commercial Radio Station -So many worthy nominees that this year that I'm going to make the criteria one of "Great (but Wasted) Signal". And, there's a tie! WAVA and WMAL. While they each make money for their respective owners, the stations fail at being all of what great radio stations can be. Neither station has a strong and diverse local presence of any sort. That includes local sales! Both stations have the best signals on their respective bands. Yes, WMAL-630 has a better signal than WFED-1500. Both stations program for very loyal, high spendable income, yet small niche audiences in terms of ear count. Also, neither station has a significant local news operation; Talk Show Host –We have a trifecta! Chris Plante, Larry O'Connor, and Sean Hannity. Of the three, Sean Hannity has gotten to the point of being a pitiful and sad professional tragedy in progress. Right now, he is to broadcasting what Senator Joe McCarthy was to politics. The man is professionally self-destructing to the point of irrelevancy. Only thing is, it's the audience and not an Ed Murrow which has discovered not just his demagoguery but his incompetence. Hannity is trying desperately to re-invent himself with "The New Sean Hannity Show". But, it's too little and way too late. The Scott Shannon bumpers are no longer funny. It was with a rare flash of competency on their part for Cumulus to dump him. His show reeks of the desperation of fearing having to go back to a small market. He is in a professional tailspin to where I wouldn't be surprised to see him jettisoned by Fox News Channel in a year or two –if it takes that long. Sean Hannity would have done well to have learned a lesson from the late Paul Aurandt and his office at WLS. Paul kept a painting of "small town America" in his office until his death. Sean Hannity would've done well to have learned from that silent lesson. It is so sad to hear Sean Hannity sounding on-air as if Barrack Obama is still running for re-election. As for Larry O'Connor, the guy is probably very competent away from the mic. But, he has no business being in front of one. And, then there's Chris Plante. When he had his old evening show and occasionally subbed for Chris Core in mid-mornings, he was quite entertaining and informative. But, he is no longer what he used to be. Following his original tinning from Cumeulose, it's sad that he seemingly tries to see what outlandish stuff he can get away with saying on-air. It's sad because I've seen his attitude before. It's what happens when your job security is so absent that you know that once you get off the air, that show could easily have been your last on that station. That's what happens when Martin-Baker provides your office chairs. At WMAL, it's justified. Chris Plante, Chris Core, and Michael Graham have all had first-hand experience with it. If his on-air attitude is indeed now part of his personal persona, it's even worse because he's allowed the insecurities inherent in working for a place like Cumulus to get into his head. I've worked for O&O's like that in my distant past. And, blessedly gotten out before the permanent damage and inevitable final implosion happened; Move by an Inept Owner –Salem putting Sean Hannity on WWRC. If you put perfume on a pig, you still have a pig. And, that pig will soon stink once again like any other pig. Right now WWRC has one of the worst AM signals in the market. Hannity will have even fewer listeners on 1260 than he has on 630/105.9. Salem must've gotten a helluva deal from Premiere to carry him in D.C. There's no way Salem will promote Hannity on WWRC. Salem either does not know how to do promotions or just doesn't bother as I've yet to see them do anything here. To paraphrase an old saying, "You can give away a million dollars on your station. But, if nobody knows you're doing it, you'll still have your million dollars because nobody knows you're giving it away." Special Dishonorable Mention! Cumeuless for what they did to Jack Diamond. Harvey will bounce back elsewhere. And, WRQX has acquired interminable bad luck from which they will likely never recover. My recommendation? Sell 630, 105.9, and 107.3 to… CBS! Lest I sound like "James Cielola", I'd suggest that if that deal came to pass, put WNEW on 630 and 105.9 (yes, kill the WMAL call… it's toxic.) and sell 106.7 and 107.9 to maintain FCC compliance. Then, do a KRTH-101/WCBS-FM clone on 107.3. For the sake of sentimentality, I'd rather such a format be on 95.5. But, WPGC bills way too much to merit serious changes; Non-Commercial Station -WPFW… need I say more? When the audience has to tell a station that it's off the air, it's time for the Friendly Candy Company to get involved. If the FCC revoked the license for WPFW, would anybody notice the difference? I may be showing my history, prejudices and loyalties in saying this, but Howard University would be a much better steward of the license for 89.3 than Pacifica. If the world were perfect, Howard University would be the licensee of 89.3 (where they would still make a lot of money and tax-free at that) and 96.3 could be sold to CBS, which would then sell 99.1; Radio Facility Loss –the old WEAM site on Crimmins Lane. As the guy who broke the news here on DCRTV, and who also remembers when WEAM was something special in D.C. radio, it's a shame to see it go. Yes, I'm among those who have offered a recycled six-pack for Harry Averill's grave. But, in commercial radio –like any other business- change is inevitable. OK, it's true that not all change is for the better. But, it's been a long time since I last bought a car with vestigial tailfins, let alone the real thing. So, it's not surprising that 2131 Crimmins Lane will become single family houses like so many other former directional AM transmitter sites; Censorship by an all-news station –WNEW's Stacy Lynn not saying the name of the Russian punk rock band "Pussy Riot" on-air, while WTOP's Debra Feinstein did; "Christian" radio station –WAVA. I understand DCRTV Dave's reasons for putting down WAVA. They are not without basis. However, just as WRBS is a textbook case of almost everything going right that a Christian radio station needs to be, WAVA is a case study in what a Christian radio station should not be. Indeed, WFAX has a more active presence in the local Christian community than WAVA, let alone the greater Washington community itself. The kindest thing I can say about WAVA is that it was the "most recent WMAL-FM" before the callsign change 800KHz up the band. While I'm sure DCRTV Dave mourns the passing of the Top-40 powerhouse WAVA once was, as a Christian, I mourn what WAVA has become. I'm surprised Premiere wasn't willing to pay Salem's price to carry Hannity on WAVA. That would've been a marriage like my most recently ended one: Made in Hell; Technical Innovation –The digital products that allow broadcasters and cablecasters to so clutter the screen image as to make it unwatchable. This of course started with ID or logo "bugs" in the lower right corner of the screen. But, what we have today with promos and ads, it's enough to drive viewers away; DCRTV Posts -Media "pros" who still consider daily local print to be 'media'. Daily print hasn't evolved since stone tablets, and has essentially been dead in the U.S. since 1950; Legislation –The various U.S. Copyright Laws, most of which seemingly date back to the invention of moveable type. A good example is the ability of TV broadcasters to "charge" CATV systems (and ultimately their customers) for the "privilege" of providing better reception (as most TV broadcasters have seen a drop in their reliable coverage areas with the switch to ATSC) for what the public gets for free. I predict that a change in the law will have the bucks going to the U.S. government for distribution to the TV Stations… with the Copyright Office setting a flat fee per channel for carriage. This will end signal blackouts for consumers and bring some sense of reality to TV station values. A special dishonorable mention goes to Fox which has had the audacity to "recommend" that its OTA viewers pay for the "quality" programs telecast by their stations. Fox actually did this not too long ago when WNYW-TV in New York was having a re-trans dispute with one of the CATV's up there. Australians like Rupert Murdoch may be used to paying a license fee for the "privilege" of watching TV. That's not the American Way. This is the U.S., Rupert. Get used to it; Owner & Operator –Red Zebra. When 106.7 did their "dead lobster" gimmick, they should've done a "dead zebra" instead. I respect Dan Snyder for what he's gone through personally with a family medical crisis. But, with all due respect, he paid way too much for some has-been AM's and a couple of FM's that aren't even in the gym parking lot, let alone rimshots. Notwithstanding the Redskins, he needs to cut his losses and completely get out of radio; Spot –This one is a no-brainer! The "Cars for Kids" spot. This spot is so bad that I wouldn't wish it on WMAL. It makes the oldie "On Top Of Spaghetti" sound intelligent. The repetitions "FedCenter.com" of a few years ago was almost as bad. Dishonorable Mention to WTOP for all the spots they run for products and services unavailable to the general public. Not all of us are or in the immediate family of commissioned military officers, serve in or are retired from the military (My draft physical found a previously unknown heart defect, disqualifying me from military service), or work for the DoD or the State Department. Ever hear of something called "discrimination"? Laurie, would WTOP air spots for a restaurant selling women half-price meals just because they are women, with men being charged full price? If you wouldn't, why are you airing these other ads? They are just as discriminatory; Local Media Website –WTOP. How often do they look at this thing, let alone update it? There are routinely stories on there that stay around for days on end; Failure to Acknowledge this is the 21st Century –SiriusXM dumping Art Bell who wanted multi-platform distribution.
- Unsigned Corporate Suit
Best: Jim and Doreen, Topper, Doug Hill,Gordan Peterson, Pat Collins. Thomas Boswell, Mike Jones,Adam Kilgore, Mark Zuckerman, Shawn Yancy,Laura Evans F.P and Bob Carpenter, Katie Carrera, Alan May, Al Koken ,and Joe Beninati. Jill Sorenson who is the best and smartest female sports anchor is this town.Leon Harris,Chris Cooley who is ten times better then Brian Mitchell and one of the best since Sonny Jurgenson
Worst: Craig Laughlin needs to go . He doesn't teach the viewer anything about Hockey and it's a shame. Way too much Brian Mitchell. Dianna Russini,Britt McHenry Julie Donaldson, Kristen Berset, The Sports Junkies,Dan Steinberg,Jason Reid, Steve Czaben,Chad Dukes, Erika Gonzales, Nicole Darin,Larry Micheal,Sarah Kogod.
Best: Area955; SiriusXM's BPM, Electric Area, 1st Wave, and 80s on 8; WNEW-FM providing additional traffic reports during the morning and evening commutes; Fox45's updated graphics for their news ticker and info bar during newscasts.
Worst: 98Rock's new morning show; WBAL+ for repeating hours-old WBAL-TV newscasts on Sundays pre-empting Me-TV programming like "The Brady Bunch"; Infomercials; This inning of Orioles baseball is brought to you by...
Happy New Year to all from Greg in Perry Hall!
Best: DCRTV growing into DCBMM (DC-Balt Metro Media). WBAL-TV in Balt. Class of the bunch. Stern on SAT-RAD. Sorry, you haters, but still uber funny and relevant. TMOS and MANDL via podcast. Although I'm sure that they would acknowledge that they're following the pirate ship. Carolla Digital is showing the way for radio stations that have forgotten that it's all about the content. So, no, unless I'm trying to catch a weather or traffic update, I don't listen to either FM or AM. One for you, RIDG. ZW, OOBBEE--even Real Ahhhh. Keep it coming. HNY to all.
Worst: TV "news" that is repeated over and over from Friday night to Saturday morning and afternoon. Unless a freaking building falls down in between, you're going to see someone talk to a vet and a guest chef not finish cooking some brunch dish and the same stories again and again. The BAL and MAL haters that like to list their detailed issues. Find something else to do. Finally, the uptight douche that complains that mindless exercises like this are "not journalism" and "non-scientific polls". Take that stick out of your ass and get comfortable. It's called harmless fun.
Best: WTMD, WTOP, WMUC, WIHT-the Kane Show, WNEW-the added traffic during rush hours
Worst: WJFK, WNEW-John Domen
Best: Channel 4…..Channel 4……Channel 4…… Their graphics….their staff, their whole operation….certainly the best in the market…perhaps even Nationally….SAT/RAD…..the only true "Non-Cookie-Cutter" Radio that is left…..what ever happened to the formats from the old "Flame Thrower" AM Staions of the 50s and 60's….and those outstanding DJs and the real personality that was injected into the broadcasts….those days, it appears, unfortunately, are gone for good….with the exception of SiriusXM….and yes, for all of us 'Skins Fans….watching "Jurry" Jones have a vapor lock at the end of the game last night….almost made a 3 win season tolerable…
Worst: Channel 9…..Channel 9…..Channel 9….and to think just a very few short years ago, they were far better tna the aformentioned Channel 4 is today….such a shame, in a market that size, to have such less than top notch news outlets….Dan Snyder/Larry Michael…a toss up….worst owner ever….and worst Team Voice ever….I guess they deserve each other….it is a shame that since the dismissal of Herzog & Huff that Danny Boy hasn't had 7 Voices of the Redskins in those same 14 years…..What a total emabarassment those two are for such a once proud NFL Franchise…
Chip in Harrisonburg
Best : Michael Savage moving to afternoon drive on WMAL in January/Grant Paulsen's reporting/Erika Gonzales for simply being gorgeous eye candy on Channel 4/Pat Collins for having some life & personality/Topper Shut for being the only reason to ever turn on Channel 9
Worst : WTOP for slipping in advertisements constantly = unlistenable/Gordon Peterson for not retiring already/Bill Roland & Holden Kushner for having the most annoying radio voices in the history of radio/Sean Hannity for also having a whiny robotic demeanor on the air/Channel 9 broadcasts & reporters in general (except for Topper)/the creepy Olga weather lady/Chad Dukes for reciting the station's phone number so many times I had to stop listening/
Best: Mark Levin
Worst: The FCC allowing IBOC technology, which interferes with adjacent AM channels. This is hampering listeners from even hearing their small local stations in some markets. As an example: WBZ 1030 in Boston broadcasts IBOC. However, their IBOC portion of the signal is on the low side of 1020 (KDKA) and the high side of 1040 (WHO) for 5 KHz. In other words, WBZ is taking up 1/2 of 1020's and 1040's alloted spectrum. Even worse, it is on the side of those channels furtherest away from WBZ's frequency. The only way to listen to these station is to use upper or lower sideband whcih nulls out the IBOC signal. I cannot imagine why the FCC knuckleheads would have allowed the IBOC technology to decimate neighboring channels. Basically instead of a 10 KHz bandwidth, the IBOC stations take up 30 KHz, effectively killing their neighbors on both sides. Do we really need Digital Radio on the AM band? Is WBZ's (and other station's) news any better in a digital mode. In fact, IBOC should be called IBLOCK.
Worst: Why is there really no full time TV news. Fox, CNN, CNN HL, et al all claim to have news, but they really don't. Most of the stuff these stations have is commentary, murder mysteries, Hollywood nonsense, etc. Try finding fresh news during the middle of the night (especially on weekends). It is downright impossible. Most evenings the weather channel is telling of some weather emergency back 30 years ago. The network names are totally misleading and do not reflect what they are broadcasting. Remember when CNN HL indeed had a fresh broadcast every half hour 24/7? The fact that there is no news most of the time makes TV about the biggest waste of money.
Best: I bought a Perseus Software Defined Radio this year. What a fantastic receiver for AM and shortwave DX-ing. Add a good loop antenna (Wellbrook) or a very very long wire and a fast computer and one can have a ball hearing distant stations. With this set-up, I even logged Radio Riyadh from Saudi Arabia on 1521 KHz from my home in the Shenandoah Valley. Just 1 KHz above WWKB (Buffalo, NY) on 1520 KHz. This does not happen every night, but has happened a number of times. Wish I had had this kind of listening station back in the 60s when the cold war was still brewing and the international broadcasters were in full battle mode with each other.
Regards, George S.
Best: WNEW adding more traffic reports during rush hours
Worst: Sale of Allbritton's TV stations (including WJLA) to the Sinclair group.
Best: New Country 106.1; HFS; 100.7 The Bay finally getting it right; WBAL-TV news.
Worst: WBAL-AM; 98 ROCK (can we say 6 months until it becomes WBAL-FM); The Ravens broadcast team; 101.9 LITE FM's constant name changes (I am getting dizzy); anything involving Comcast; KHZtv and its related rimshot stations; the DCRTV mailbag.
Best: Channel 4 News, Hillary Howard, Gordon Peterson, Cerphe's Progressive Show on Ecoplanet Radio, TravelGal, The Real Voice of the Redskins...Frank Herzog!!!!
Worst: Larry Michaels, O'Reilly, Hannity
Jeff in Leesburg
Best: Donna Hamilton on WBAL-TV…delivers news with class and authority but is also someone that I think I would love to sit down and have a cup of coffee with. WBAL-TV as a whole kicks butt. Chief Tasselmyer: best meteorologist…once again…class. WMAR-TV for hanging in there. Joce Sterman, Mike Masco and Jamie Costello are the A-gamers there…just sayin. Laurie DeYoung for showing that morning radio can still be for the whole family. The whole gang at WPOC for sending Cheap Channel the message that the longer you keep good personalities the more return you get. Gary Helton's Smooth Jazz in the Morning show on WHFC-FM. WXCY-FM…staying just as strong as the legendary Dave Hovel left. WNEW-FM has talent out the ying yang! Nathan Hager, Amy Morris, Chris Barnes, Sarah Jacobs, Chyrl Simone, Evan Haning, Stacy Lynn.
Worst: Megan Pringle leaving ABC2. New Country 106 lack of live DJ's. No radio station that does Baltimore traffic on weekends. Lack of promotion for WNEW.
best Charlie Slowes, Dave Jaegler . Joe Beninati & Craig Laughlin (Hall of Fame - RIP). Bob Carpenter, Steve Buckhantz, Doug Hill WASH-FM, WTOP, 106.7 The Maureen Bunyan, Doug Hill, Tony Perkins, Ed Walker on The Big Broadcast, Britt McHenry, Christy Winters Scott , Ron Thompson,, Chris Miller, Doc Walker , Laura Evans , Dmitri Sotis, Evan Hanning, Amy Morris, Johnny Holliday, WBIG (just widen the playlist and stop the corporate contesting), WGRQ Dave Adler and Mike Harvey, WINC-FM, WTNT's Bruce Houston
Worst Comcast coverage of the Capitals, FP Santangelo , Dave Johnson , Larry Michael , Boswell, JC, WUSA , Nicole Dawin, Angie Goff, Barbara Harrison , Dianna Rassini,
Worst: Allbritton TV stations empire being devoured by Sinclair's massive and never-ending buying spree... ABC unlikely to have WJLA as DC O&O. Sinclair and its so-called "shell companies" have already gobbled up WUTB (My 24), as well as 5 former Cox stations, Fisher, Barrington, Titan, and New Age stations. Sinclair may have made other TV station buy-ups/sell-offs (like Media General-Young, Tribune-Local TV, and Gannett-Belo mergers, Fox buying WJZY & WMYT Charlotte, and Gray buying up Hoak and Parker stations) look good, to a certain extent. J.C. Hayward's suspension from WUSA-9 amid charter school scandal. Hannity's radio show disappearing from Cumulus stations. Cancellation of Gordon Peterson's Inside Washington show.
Best: New and improved Gannett graphics and music package, as well as new CBS O&O graphics, and Media General working on its new graphics and music package. Birth of baby Ava (daughter of Alison Starting & Peter Alexander). WRC (NBC 4) set improvements. Jim Vance's 2-year contract extension. Cynné Simpson leaving WJLA before Sinclair take-over, and landing at WAGA.
Best - 105.7 The Fan, after all these years they finally got a good show line up & how to do everything exactly right. 97-5 HFS, DC101, Z104-3, WBAL/98Rock Ravens Radio broadcast team (Gerry, Stan, and Q) the best in the business! WBAL-TV morning news. Baltimore radio stations beating WNEW in DC ratings, and thus that after 2 years they still bounce around anywhere between 25th & 35th place in ratings. 101.9 Lite-FM's Christmas format. Gina Crash, Scott & Jeremy 105-7 The fan, Amelia from 98Rock.
Worst - Mickey Cuchiella exiting 98 Rock and 98Rock imploding. The sad state of 98Rock that Mickey & Amelia were the only reason to listen and that would cause the station to implode all together. Justin, Scott, and Speigel. HFS's poor on air line up because they don't have a single strong morning voice WNEW and everything about it. The fact that WNEW is still on the air with 2 years of 25th-35th place ratings. The fact that HFS being back at 99.1 would bring better ratings in 1 day than WNEW has in 2 years. Kane Show's spastic jumping topic ways (almost as if the show is pieced together with all of it being voice tracked). Sarah Fisher leaving Kane Show, Elliott leaving DC for NYC. 101-9 Lite FM's 80's, 90's, and now format, wasn't Mix106-5's ratings in the dumps with that format about 5-10 years ago? No Classic hits stations in Baltimore after 8 years of having none!!! Country 106.1 must I say more? Steve Swenson, Dan Mason, Marty Bass.
Worst: Bert Show, Jack Diamond's Exit, and WRQX's change to "All The Hits". Sinclair taking over 7. FOX 5's changes…
Best: Leon Harris' Recovery
Best: The Junkies, who seem to have found new life in the last several months. I hope they keep it up, and keep talking sports and more rather than just going the lazy route and talking all sports all the time. Grant Paulsen is the best sports broadcaster in DC, Danny Rooyay's Larry Michael spoofs, WAMU always, WNEW's traffic every 5 minutes, and their coverage of the Navy Yard, WHFS in Baltimore, WMAL talking about things other than politics in morning drive, wish they would do that more often, Sam Huff finally retiring from the Redskins booth, Elliott going to NYC, which will be the first step towards his demise on DC101, Kevin and Tom on WTEM, WJFK for bringing Don Geronimo back... but...
The Worst: Hands down Don Geronimo, for not updating his material in 20 years. I so excited for him to come back, and fear that his stay won't be long. The same old pointless stories just aren't as funny without the rest of the crew, and Don really misses Buzz breaking things up and taking some of the pressure off. The show was never the same after they started on WNEW, and shit, that was over a DECADE ago. I think it's just over for Don, and that sucks. DC101 and WBIG. What is a 41 year old white man to listen to? DC101 plays too much top 40 crap, and there doesn't seem to be any good new rock. And 100.3 just sounds too old for my tastes. They are driving me away from music radio. 98 Rock is terrible and needs a total reboot. Brian Bolter leaving Fox 5. All local TV news stations, which are just shells of their former selves and totally unwatchable.
Best: DCRTV for covering local radio and TV which The Post has abdicated. Laurie Cantillo as she steps in to run the Glass-Enclosed Nerve Center at WTOP. ABC7. Doug Hill. Bob Marbourg. Dimitri Sotis. WTOP.com. Dave Johnson. Traffic Tweets from WTOP.
Worst: Cruel radio companies that fire people just before Christmas. They have no heart, no soul! Cumulus and CC have always been like that, but CBS joined them this year. Very sad!
Best; All the digging reporters out there who care about enterprising stories. Mark Segraves (especially his city hall reports), Paul Wagner (especially his D.C. fire department coverage) Pat Collins, (who works harder than anyone even though he can retire) Jennifer Donelan (her cop stories) Sherri Ly (a great digger), all of the photographers in the city who never get any credit.
Worst; All the haters in the mailbag.
Worst: DCRTV for creating an unscientific popularity contest. A site that takes pride in getting accurate information before many mainstream media outlets should not allow opinionated polling without requiring substance to back it up. The overwhelming majority of people who read this site work in the business, many of whom are journalists who learned you don't write an opinion piece without doing your homework to back it up.
Best: Dianna Russini to emphasize my point.
best Jim Vance, Doreen , Wendy , Dan Steinberg, Julie Donaldson, Slowes & Jaegler , Topper Shutt, Doug Hill, Howard Bernstein. Russ Ptacek , Britt McHenry, Gordon and Maureen. WNEW's Stacy Lyn and Evan Haning, Leon Harris, Mike Moss and Bruce Allen on WTOP. Christy Scott Wizards.
Worst Hate to pile on Diana Russini and Doug Kammerer, Amelia Segal , WMAL, Glenn Beck . Terrible election day coverage on every network. Boston bombing coverage . JC scandal . Michael Jenkins , Washington examiner
Worst: Chuck Bell, Doug Kammerer, Amelia Segal - all NBC4 weather, Diane Rossini, NBC4 sports, Angie Goff, Barbara Harrison both NBC4; and Allison Seymour FOX5
Best: Tom Kierin NBC4 (please tell me chuck bell isn't replacing him!!!); weather; Sue Palka, Wendy Reiger, Eun Yang, Jim Hanley, Vance, Doreen, Tom Sherwood, Sarah Simmons, Julie Wright, Bruce DePeyut, Jessica Doyle
Worst: Barbara Harrison - just terrible.
BEST: Ava Marie WBAL TV Weather. Multi talented TV Personality that can do any interview with style, class and personality and then deliver a forecast that is coming from a true meteorologist that actually has a degree in the subject.
WORST: Marty Bass. WJZ TV. This guy belongs in a dunking chair not an anchor chair. He can't deliver the mail much less the news and weather.
BEST: Everyone from NBC4. Don't watch sports so can't comment on everyone's disapproval of Diana Russini. Laura Evans Fox5.
WORST: Fox5 anchors except for Sue Palka.
Best: Jim Vance, Doreen, Wendy , Doug Hill. Britt Mchenry, Kristen Berset, Laura Evans , Jackie Benson, Will Thomas, Chuck Bell, Leon Harris, Alison Starling, The Junkies, Lavar Arrington, Chad Dukes, Topper, . Joe Beninati & Craig Laughlin, Allen May Wendy Reiger; the return of Don Geronimo to DC's airwaves. WBAL-TV - Stan, Sarah, Mike Wise, Dan Steinberg , Sky
Worst: Doug Kammarer, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, Larry Kudlow, Chick Hernandez, Tony kornhiser, Bruce Johnson . Jummy, Autria , Steve Czaban, Chris Cooley, Elliot , Dianna Russini , Dave Owens , JC hayward, Andrea Rome, WTOP interruptions , Kevin from 106.7
Best ,, where do I start,,OH !! that's right there are no best just bad and worst
worst,,ch 9 getting rid of Anita Brikman, and the Nationals baseball radio play by play guys,,,homers,,terrible
Worst: Martinsburg's WEPM abandoning local programming, canceling the outstanding "Panhandle Live" with Hans Fogle for syndicated sports talk.
Best: TalkRadio WRNR's "Eastern Panhandle Talk" with Rob Mario, who has reinvented the show into a crackerjack local issues talk show.
BEST: Jim Vance, Doreen Genzler, Wendy Reiger, Jim Handley, Leon Harris, Gordon Peterson, Allison Starling, Maureen Bunyan, Doug Hill, Tony Perkins, Ed Walker on The Big Broadcast, Charlie Slowes, Dave Jageler and Jack Hicks on the Nats radio broadcasts. Bob Carpenter & F.P. Santangelo as they continue to develop into a great TV team. Joe Beninati & Craig Laughlin on Caps TV. Wes Johnson's continued great commercial voicing. Jim Farley, Mike Moss, Bruce Alan, Dmitri Sotis, Evan Hanning, Amy Morris, Johnny Holliday, WBIG (just widen the playlist and stop the corporate contesting), WGRQ Dave Adler and Mike Harvey, WINC-FM, WTNT's Bruce Houston for putting that talker out of it's misery, WTMD's music selection, Bryan Nehman on WBAL, Adam Tuss, Sky Kerstein, Grant Paulsen, George Wallace, Jim Bohannon, Bob Madigan, Bob Marbourg, Paul Anthony, Jerry Phillips, Bob Duckman, Johnny Dark, Willard Scott, and every veteran broadcaster who keeps it classy while giving the younger talent a lesson in professionalism.
WORST: Derek McGinty and the entire W*USA news team. Wipe the slate and start over. Diane Sawyer, George Stephanopulos, David Gregory, Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz. The mistaken attempt to appeal to a small slice of progressive viewers by decimating any news credibility for NBC/MSNBC. FOX News for not clearly separating news from opinion. WJFK's attempt at being a sports station - you can almost hear LaVar typing on his laptop while not paying attention to man-boy Chad "I'd rather be sucking up to a WWE wrestler" Dukes. The Junkies are still four clueless chuckleheads in search of a single brain cell. The hoopla over the hiring, rehiring, firing and recycling every "townie" like Don Geronimo and Mike O'Meara. WTEMs ignorance of any other sport besides football, and even that is debatable. Sports radio in DC in general. Dave Johnson's slobbering nasal delivery. J.J. Green and questionable sources. Kristie King, Lori Lundin and David Burd. Neil Augenstein and his phegm ball voice. Redskins suckup Larry Michael. Bill Hess for decimating a once proud WMAL & not standing up to corporate. Joel Oxley, Lisa Wolfe, Julia Zeigler, and the 3400 Idaho Ave. crew for wasting a solid signal on Federal News Radio when it could easily survive on a lesser AM signal and online where it built it's original audience. Julie Wright on both TV and radio. The loss of so many great talents including Mac McGarry. And finally...DCRTV jumping the shark, crapping the bed & losing its mission every time it allows a political rant in the guise of a media posting, allowing vile volleys that are so low even Craigslist's "Rants & Raves" would ban most of these losers. The absolute worst of 2013 is DCRTV not cleaning house, revamping the overall graphic look and quality of content to reflect the professionalism of those actually engaged in the industry.
Best: Nationals radio and TV broadcast teams; Caps and 'Zards too. The impending return of Don Geronimo to drive time. Gordon Peterson, as always. WAMU.
Worst: Redskins radio broadcast team. Those creepy "Cars for Kids" spots. Lazy copy writers at both DC sportstalk stations, who end EVERY spot with "And don't forget to tell 'em [insert name of ex-jock reading the copy] sent you!" It's meaningless boilerplate.
Best: Changes (finally) at WPFW, though I still doubt the station can survive; Wendy Reiger; the return of Don Geronimo to DC's airwaves.
Worst: WTOP's never-ending dumbing down of all news; DC's lack of a true alternative or 102.3FM-era WHFS-type station; the two lamest sports-talk stations on the east coast (WTEM and WJFK) and especially their use of former Redskins players who are abysml broadcasters -- specifically Lavar Arrington, Chris Cooley, Rick Walker and Brian Mitchell; Chris Core. Chris Core. Chris Core.
BEST - WBAL-TV - Stan, Sarah, Tony and Mindy in the morning's - even though Stan has moved to evenings. The new morning anchor has been good so far. We will see if he continues to attract viewers in the new year.
Worst - Lisa Robinson - WBAL Weekend anchor. She can't get through reading the prompter without flubbing up the lines or intent of the story. Simply horrible for big market talent. 98 Rock needs to get a decent morning show and adjust the play list. Sad when a classic rock station is beating out an established rock station. Radio to wake up, understand that people are intelligent and now have more choices for music entertainment. Put the fun and excitement back into radio. Make it interactive on air not read liners and such. Radio is boring for the most part. Break the mold of same old over researched songs. "Gold" artists have more then one big hit that doesn't need to be repeated every 15 hours or so. Dig a little deeper into the catalog. Be a little risky sometimes and go with the gut feeling on songs. Not what some consultant is jamming down your throat.
Best Jim Vance , Dorren , Wendy , Gorden , Maureen, Britt McHenry, Derrick Mcginty ,Christy Winter Scott, Chick Hernandez, Junkies, , Laura Evans, Doug Hill. Sue Palka, Washington post entertainment section, Tony Kornhiser, Lavar Arrington, Dan Steinberg , Mike Wise, Kristen Berset , Arch Campbell. Julie Donaldson Slowes & Jaegler , Leon Harris, Scott Jackson, Brian Mitchell, Doc Walker, Thom Loverro Washington Capitals TV Coverage (Joe, Craig, Al, Alan), Stan Stovall, Jane Miller and Jennifer Franciotti. Tim Brant
Worst Funny Danny, Dianna russini , Doug Kammerer. Kane show with new sidekick, Elliot . AM radio, Kevin Sheehan, Maureen Umeh. Darcy Spenser or Jackie Benson Amelia Segal and Erika Gonzales, Jummy and Autria , Larry Michael Chris Core, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Andy Parks WMAL's Chris Plante
BEST: I like Marty Bass, I have known him over 30 years and he is a regular down to earth guy who actually stops and talks to other folks while out & about. Him and Don Scott balance each other, and I like that in the morning. I don't need over-bubbly blondes with fake boobs all up in my face first thing in the morning. Also good: WNEW sending a challenge to WTOP. Doreen, Jim Vance, Tony Kornheiser.
WORST: The gang on WCBM/Baltimore radio is ready for the nursing home. Out of touch, getting senile, the older gent in the morning can't go one day without mentioning his genitals. The 85 year old at night time, talks about sodomy every other day. Others stumbles and stammers and once a caller asked if he had a stroke. (Tom Marr) Its the same right wing crap as WMAL maybe they should simulcast.
Best of WNEW: not giving up despite pretty low ratings over past 2 years, on air-Amy Morris
Worst of WNEW: signal consistency, on air-Jon Domen
Best: Alan Etter on WTOP
Worst: All the meanies in the mailbag
Best: Jim Vance, Pat Collins, Doreen Gentzler, Topper Shutt, Doug Hill, Howard Bernstein. Russ Ptacek is interesting. Tony Kornheiser and The Monkey. Erika Gonzales, Caps TV crew, Eun Yang
Worst: Lavar Arrington, Doug Kammererererr, Elliot, Dianna Russini (for my wife to comment on how bad she is, she's bad!), JC Wayward, Bob and FP on the Nats crew (sickening homerism)
Happy Holiday's!
Best: Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, former Fox Morning News duo: Allison & Tony Perkins.
Worst: Shomari Stone(way too hyper & dramatic), Holly Morris (too hyper & dramatic) Annie Yu ( too naive) the new Fox Morning News format: Allison & Steve: no chemistry, the three anchor format @ 9am
Best: WBAL-TV for their no-nonsense style of reporting. Across the board, in all departments, they rank #1. WMAR-TV was beginning to show an improvement but they are trying too hard and it shows. Jamie Costello, your enthusiasm is great but you need to tone it down just a bit. WJZ-TV is also solid in their news and sports departments.
Worst: It's very simple: Marty Bass on WJZ-TV. I watch the news, weather and sports to be informed, not entertained. Mr. Bass is arrogant, conceited and untalented. He does not have the credentials to do weather and it is so annoying that I end up changing the channel. Please are you listening WJZ??? Mr. Bass needs to go!
Terry in Bel Air, MD
Best: CFZM AM740, Ed Walker's Big Broadcast, Acoustic Cafe on WMRA-Harrisonburg, Oldies on WCHA/WHAG and WKCW. NPR, PBS, a complete network radio newscast-such as the CBS top-of-the-hour on WBBM-that's not cut short for local news, etc.
Worst: IBOC at night on 50kW clear channel AM stations, Power line interference, Digital hash from just about anything with a computer in it, interference from CFLs, Delay between the TV picture and radio sound on sports broadcasts-sometimes as much as 25 seconds, Class D AM stations which don't power down at night, Versions of "Lyin' Eyes" and "Piano Man" with the middle of the song removed, the glut of translators (mostly religious) and other low-power stations which preclude reception of full power stations in their fringe coverage areas.
Best: Jim Vance, Tony Kornheiser, Johnny Holliday...Leon Harris, Gordon and Maureen, all still going strong after all these years! WTOP...97.1 Christmas music, Kristen Berset, Steve Buckhantz, Bob Carpenter, Jim Bohannon, Doreen Genzler, Mike Wilbon, Doug Hill, Jim Farley ( Boy, will WTOP miss him) Phil Wood on Radio.
Worst: Larry Michael, hands down the worst , WMAL, Kevin Sheehan, how do you spell boring. Chick Hernandez, always trying to be funny.Not! Doug Kammerer, DC sports radio stations.
Best: WJZ TV in the morning, WNEW any time, Dave Durian filling in at WBAL radio, WBAL radio unloading news directors
Worst: WBAL radio no matter the daypart, WBAL radio's website with its dated, non local news and silly blogs, WMAR pm anchors, WBAL TV weekend team, WBFF weekend team
Best: Junkies, I think they are finding their stride again and not talking as much sports as they used to which is what turned me off in the first place. In addition, the fact you can watch them on a video stream that a high quality separates them from all morning drive in Washington. Also, it is good to see Kevin McCarthy get a permanent gig on FOX to be the next Arch in DC.
Worst: Kane, the chemistry that was there is gone, and Kane is too dominant and dilutes his co-hosts/behind the scenes people. I think if it wasn't for teens and 20 somethings mostly listening to him, his ratings would tank tremendously. It is also comical how staged some of the bits really are, but people are too stupid to realize it. The show is not entertaining as it used to be.
Worst I sense a common theme…. Dianna Russini is not well liked in dc. I see why she had worked in so many markets. I think a smaller marker like Idaho or Rhode Island would be a better fit for her. Poor hire.
Best: WNEW's Stacy Lyn and Evan Haning in the afternoons; Frank Hanrahan doing sports in the AM; NBC 4's Angie Goff and Eun Yang
Worst: NBC's Barbara Harrison; WTOP sounding so old.
worst wjla sale to the devil , Shaun Yancy , Dianna Russini , (Autria Godfrey and Jummy ) WJLA revolving news anchors, Mike Wise name change insanity., Larry Michael. Funny Danny. Chad Dukes, Kevin Sheehan, Redskins official post game show That Scott guy on WTTG , Kendis Gibson , politico arrogance . Amanda Meadows
Best NBC4 , B Mitch, Don coming back to WCBS, Tony Kornhiser, the new channel 9 girl. Easy on the eyes. Maureen Bunyan, Gordon Peterson , Jim and Doreen , Chuck Bell, Britt Mchenry , Carol Maloney Tim Brant Doc Walker, Lavar Arrington, Laura Evans, Will Thomas
Worst: Jeers to WJLA for not giving Steve Cheveney the anchor job on Good Morning Washington" that he was hired for. They made him only a reporter and stuck Scott Thuman who has NO talent for anchoring in that slot. Cheveney got fed up and went back to Fox5. I don't blame him. WJLA kept pushing Cynee Simpson and she didn't have any anchor talent either. They kept pushing her out front. Bad move.
Best on TV: WJZ'S Mary Bubala & Kai Jackson (sorry he is leaving WJZ, but I wish him great success). WBAL'S Mindy Basarra and Stan Stovell are my second choice, and poor WMAR is not even in the contest. I do not see Washington News enough to be judgemental.
Now for the worst on TV: WJZ'S Vic Carter, if he reads a story its a sure bet he will screw up some of the words. Denise Koch is OK, but her hair drives me crazy. She should fire her hair dresser and get one that suggests a new style for a person her "age", which I am sure is over 50, maybe close to 60. At last I get to my least favorite anything on WJZ-Marty the obnoxious, self-centered, arragant, Ass. That was not a typing error , I think Ass fits him better than Bass. Don Scott deserves a purple heart medal for bravery for working with that big mouth all these years.
Merry Christmas to all, and a safe New Year!
Best: Tony Kornheiser, NBC4, Charlie Slowes and Dave Jaegler, Dan Steinberg, Mac MacGarry, Gordon Peterson, Jim Farley and Caryn Mathes, Jessica Sidman, Carol Joynt, the return of Don Geronimo, Andrew Sullivan (for starting his business and coming back to DC), the Charles Barkley line where Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier deserve "hazard pay" of doing play-by-play for the Wizards when they stunk earlier in the year.
Worst: Larry Michael, DC sports talk radio in general, WMAL, Allbritton selling WJLA to Sinclair, WNEW's signal, Katharine Weymouth, Gannett, MASN deadlock between Nats and Angelos, Mike Wise, Most DC political journalists who don't go in-depth in their reporting.
Tracy (@tracytran), Fairfax, VA
Worst: Chris Core ads on WTOP. That man claims to have every single thing he advertises in his house. I don't believe it and it turn off the radio during his ads. So annoying. Gordon Peterson closing down "Inside Washington." I can understand it, but we need more positive programming these days. Bob Ryan retiring. Doug Kammerer as weather person on NBC4 All of the sports anchors on all networks.
Worst was Lisa Baden leaving WJLA and WTOP as a traffic reporter. She was one of the best. I know she is on whatever the CBS radio station is, but I don't listen to that as a rule. I liked her on WJLA in the morning.
Best: Mike Moss and Bruce Allen on WTOP.
Best: The early Saturday show on WMAL – just normal conversation, this and that, human. Kornheiser – smart, funny, don't agree w/his politics but rather hear him and ensemble than nuts elsewhere who I might agree with but are short on facts and humor. Jagler and Slowes, growing into excellent team. Dave McConnell, ultimate pro. Nice rebound by Andy Poley. Thom Loverro – knows stuff, takes nothing too seriously. The funny guy who does sports on Bohannon before 6 a.m.
Worst: Poor weekday WMAL guys. Sheehan and Czaban – tell me something I don't know and don't sound like a know-it-all.
Best: Music on 105.5. (They need a better signal!) Music on WTMD. (They need to find a DC signal!) Music on WRNR. (Same problem as the other two...so close, and yet so far!) Return of Don Geronimo. AM 1420 (most of the time). Charlie Slowes, Dave Jaegler and FP Santangelo. Joe Beninati & Craig Laughlin. Non-religious, English language programming returning to AM 1580 (and possibly AM 900?). The TuneIn radio app, which provides relief from DC's crappy stations without paying a subscription fee. (My new favorite station this year: KDRP out of Dripping Springs, Texas). MeTV. DCRTV home page
Worst: WTOP in the morning -- how can this be the #1 station?? (The over-caffeinated Mike Moss finally got to be too much for me this year-- stopped listening in September (which is when I found KDRP). Chris Core. David Burd. WNEW most of the time. (Why can't this station just sound like KYW or WINS?) Larry, Sonny & Cooley. DC's ever-growing legions of wasted decent signals: On AM 730, 780, 920, 1160, 1190, 1220, 1340, 1390, 1500; on FM, 90.1, 99.1, 104.1, 105.1, 105.9 -- in the FCC's hometown -- shameful.
Best. Derrick M wusa. Kristen Berset, Sue Palka, Laura Evans. Mike Wise, Mark Maske, Britt Mchenry , Jim and Doreen. Fox morning and news edge.
Worst. Bob Ryan retiring , S Yancy, JC stealing money, Dan Hellie leaving for NFL network. Dave Ross leaving.
Best: Jim Vance, Eun Yang, Pat Collins, Aaron Gilchrist, Sue Palka, Britt McHenry, Jummy Olabanji, Autria Godfrey, Jaqui Jeras, Surae Chinn, Topper Shutt, Lesli Foster, Bob & F.P., Charlie & Dave...Go Nats!, Cristina Caicedo Smit, Leon Harris, Cathy Park, Jill Sorenson and Brian Mitchell.
Worst: Wendy Rieger, JC Hayward, Will Thomas, Maureen Umeh...Burgundy and Gold???, Allison Seymour, Mike Hydeck and Chick Hernandez...his ego has overtaken his talent.
Best: Vance, Doreen and Wendy; Mr. Tony; WTOP (except Mike Moss); Mac McGarry (Hall of Fame - RIP).
Worst: Channel 9 news (especially Jan Jeffcoat); WMAL; Shomari Stone/Erika Gonzalez (calm down - watch Darcy Spenser or Jackie Benson to learn how it's done); Channel 4 sports; Larry Michael; DC sports radio; Albritton sale to Sinclair
For WMAL "Best & Worst":
Best: John Bachelor
Worst: Mornings on the Mall, Chris Plante, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, Larry Kudlow, Ernest Istook, that pouty Jamie Coughlin, and any other person save John Batchelor!
(Addendum: But Jamie Coughlin is Uber hot!)
Best...ch 8 being added to direct tv
Worst...Shawn Yancey on ch 5 and Tim Brant on ch seven both just terrible
Worst: WJLA's revolving anchors. Scott Thuman was a mess but I think they got rid of him. WJLA's website and Facebook page is always full of errors. I don't think they have any copy editors or anyone doing proofreading. Also, WJLA has too many contests and not enough news on their Facebook page.
Best: Allison Starling and Leon Harris. Doug Hill best weather forecaster.
Best. Doreen, Jim Vance, Leon Harris, Maureen bunyan, Gordon Peterson, Britt Mchenry, Wendy, Kendis Gibson , Tony Perkins WUSA game on
Worst Autria Godfrey , Dianna russini , Redskins TV. Redskins radio , Washington post. John Keim, Tim Brant , WTOP . Right wing bias Lack of Caps coverage.
Best: Any LOCAL coverage of NFL football (Ravens and WBAL's Sandusky --- especially play by play and WNST/Nestor)
Worst: Jack Diamond leaving WRQX -107.3
Best...Gordon Peterson, Mauren Bunyan Tony Kornheiser, Dave Jaegler, Johnny Holliday, Ray Knight, Bob Carpenter, Steve Buckhantz, Doug Hill WASH-FM, WTOP, 106.7 The Fan, Kristen Berset, Caps Broadcast team, Tom Boswell, Christine Brennan, Michael Wilbon, Keith Mills, Jim Bohannon.
Worst..ESPN 980, Larry Michael, Kevin Sheehan, passing of Mac McGarry, Wizzards Broadcast team.
Best: Constant information about what is going on in the Washington/Baltimore media on DCRTV. Frequently ahead of the "rags" we call newspapers.
Worst-The Haters in the mailbag that do nothing but insult, criticize, make false statements and wreck what usually is a good product.
best Andy pollen , Gordon Peterson, Britt Mchenry. Julie Donaldson. the Wizards post game girl, Leon Harris
Worst. WUSA news , the new channel 4 girl. and Wizards radio team
Best: Channel 4 news, WTOP when they aren't filling time, DC101, Nats radio announcers (Charlie Slowes, Dave Jageler), Caps radio and TV guys (John Walton, Ken Sabourin, Joe Beninati, Craig Laughlin, Alan May, Smokin' Al Koken). Mac McGarry will be missed.
Worst: Channel 9 (except for the weather team) is an embarassing shell of its former self, the very concept of WMAL, both sports talk stations, the lack of Jack FM or a truly good classic rock station in DC. Hey, I have an idea for 107.3...
BEST: DCRTV, The Junkies, Alison Starling, Gordon Peterson, Sue Palka, Shawn Yancy, Doreen Gentzler's laugh, A Prairie Home Companion
WORST: End of Inside Washington, rest of JFK programming, Bert on 1073, Elliot moving to NY, death of Mac McGarry, lack of HFS replacement(still), 98Rock's Justin, Scott & Spiegel
BEST: Brian Mitchell's Redskins rants; Tony Kornheiser Show; Jerry Negrelli; Jim and Doreen; Eun Yang; Aaron Gilchrist; Lesli Foster; Nats' TV and radio teams, including Julie Alexandria (please stay!); Nats Talk with Phil Wood--so bad it's good; Buckhantz and Chenier; Sue Palka; Kojo Njamdi..
WORST: Washington Post's sickening decline; News4's version of "Girls"--Dianna Russini, Amelia Segal and Erika Gonzales: the first two are terrible and belong in a mid-market; Gonzales is talented but needs to lose her many affectations; Shomari Stone, an honorary "Girl." Larry Michael. LaVar Arrington.
Best: Gordon Peterson. Tim Brant on national game telecasts. Dan Dierdorf retiring. Tony Kornheiser continuing to play the curmudgeon.
Worst: Ridiculous number of typos in news crawls and graphics (I notice them most on ABC and WJLA, but only because that's what I usually watch). Chris Cooley, especially when he says things like "...should have went," which is about once every half-hour. Orioles radio play-by-play, when you can listen forever and have no clue what's going on.. Tim Brant on local sports reports.
Best: For TV, Channel 4 News, especially Vance & Doreen and Wendy Reiger & Jim Handly, although Vance can sometimes be a bit much. Channel 7 can be pretty good too. For Radio, WTOP, especially Bruce Allen, Debra Feinstein, Dmitri Sotis and Hillary Howard. Wouldn't mind hearing Debra with Bruce in the mornings.
Worst: For TV, Channel 9 News. For Radio, Sportstalk radio - still so bad in this city. And every time I hear Larry Michaels I miss Frank Herzog.
Best: Sue Palka, Topper Shutt, 98rock, Don G returning to WJFK, News Channel 8, WTOP when they aren't covering fluff.
Worst: The impending sale of WJLA to Sinclair, WMAL as a whole, Bert on 1073 (tried liking the guy but I can't), Elliot moving to a righty talk outlet all while staying on DC101 and XL102, Tony Perkins moving to nights (Chenevey should have gotten Brian Bolter's old spot)
Best: WJLA/7's morning anchor, Jummy Olabanji--the next Maureen Bunyan (if the networks don't grab her, first). Her TVQ scores must be off the chart.
Worst: 99.1/WNEW. Yeah, I know, knocking off WTOP is no walk in the park. But, jeez, they can't even get this station off the ground. And by "they," I mean CBS.
Best - Jim and Doreen. Sue Palka, Doug Hill, Chick Hernandez, 106.7 The Fan, WTOP, Arch Campbell.
Worst - The demise of local sports coverage, WNEW, The demise of locally based DJ's. (Bert in Atlanta, Elliot moving to NYC, etc.). The lack of coverage for George Mason basketball. Washington Post Paywall
Best: WTMD's new facility in Towson that makes this great radio station a place to go to see and hear live music. And WTMD's new signal brings the station farther down to the Maryland side of the Beltway and into Annapolis. And Weasel on WTMD too. EITM going to NYC. WAMU's Diane Rehm
Worst: Aljazz scooping up lots of DC and Baltimore talent.
Best: WNEW-Stacy Lyn, Nathan Hager, Kevin Patrick; but WTOP overall better than WNEW, 94.7 Fresh (WIAD)-Tommy McFly; 98.7 WMZQ overall; 93.1 WPOC-Laurie DeYoung, St. Pierre; WJLA-Leon Harris, Doug Hill, Scott Thuman; WUSA-Derek McGinty
Worst: WNEW-John Domen; DC 101(WWDC) Elliot in the morning
Best: Bob Marbourg, WNEW, Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, Leon Harris, Doug Hill, Wendy Rieger, WTOP when those awful and uninteresting interviews are aired, WNEW correct time checks, NewsChannel 8, Nationals Radio Guys Slowes & Jaegler, Steve & Phil on the Bullets' games, Caps TV guys Joe and Craig, Jim Farley...we shall miss you, sir. And Bob Madigan, we shall you as you head north to cleaner air. Jim Bohannon. Sports radio WFAN in New York. The best news radio station...KYW in Philadelphia. A dream of a DC radio station playing oldies.
Worst: Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss, Mike Moss. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. WTOP incorrect time checks. Laurie Cantillo being the boss at WTOP when Jim Farley leaves. So sad. Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael. Nationals TV guys...so bad. Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news, Ch. 5 news. Radio sports in DC...horrible, horrible, horrible. Radio sports in DC...horrible, horrible, horrible. Radio sports in DC...horrible, horrible, horrible. Radio sports in DC...horrible, horrible, horrible. Radio sports in DC...horrible, horrible, horrible. Radio sports in DC...horrible, horrible, horrible. Radio sports in DC...horrible, horrible, horrible. Radio sports in DC...horrible, horrible, horrible. Radio sports in DC. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. TV sports on DC TV. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. Boring and non-relevant interviews on WTOP. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. WMAL. Chris Core and his falling-apart house. Enough already...get off the air. Now that's a Core idea that works.
Worst: Most of WJLA's news team, Russ Ptacek, Dave Owens, and Kristen Berset of WUSA9, Larry Michael, Kevin Sheehan of ESPN980
Best: Howard Bernstein (and all of WUSA9's weather crew), Chris Cooley, Steve Czaban, Scott Jackson, Brian Mitchell, Doc Walker, Thom Loverro of ESPN980, Andy Pollin of ESPN570
Worst: Sinclair purchase of WJLA, Cynne leaving for Atlanta, rumors of some people leaving next year, Dan Hellie leaving us with Dianna Russini. Mike Jones and Jason Reid for being worthless on redskins news. I rely on national reporters 4 Sports is a joke compared to its glory days. Dianna Russini is painful to watch.
Best: Leon Harris, Jim Vance, Junkies, Doreen Gentzler, Wendy Reiger, Doug Hill, Shawn Yancy, Britt McHenry, John Keim.
Worst by far is channel five local news both morning and evening,,just to much giggling and trying to be funny, Allison SEEMORE,,Steve Cherarly and last but the worst is Ch sevens Tim Brant sports beating on his chest at sign off is he signaling his love or calling a well****** you know ??? also not giving correct scores and a UMD graduate WOW !!!!
The best is Direct tv adding ch eight to there daily news shows
Worst; Chris Core, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Andy Parks all beat the hell out of the drum, spewing nonsense and lies, demanding and justifying we start a Mid East war 10 years ago. The fact that all of them are still on the radio spewing nonsense, and nonsense labeled "Core Values," is the worst thing thing in Washington, hands down.
WORST Tim BRANT POUNDING HIS CHEST AT THE END OF EACH BROADCAST,,AND THE EARLY MONING CH FIVE NEWS TEAM,,WAY TO MUCH LAUGHING AND GIGGLING AND MOST OF ALL THE LOSS OF NEWS LADY ANITA BRIKMAN ON CH 9,,,,
Best: Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, Aaron Gilchrist, Shawn Yancy, Tony Perkins, WTOP, CSN Washington's Post Redskins Report, ESPN 980
Worst: Channel 4's Diana Russini....she takes the WORST category all by herself, and when she interviews former Redskin Chris Cooley, it's as though you are watching twiddle dee and twiddle dumb...it's baddd!!
Worst: WPGC and it's fool headed chasing of HOT 99-5. If they are not going to field a quality team they may as well toss a syndicated program on in Mornings. I don't know what they were thinking bringing in that guy from San Diego or wherever he is from. I wonder if someone is planning to address the abysmal performance of that station in general and mornings in particular since the have er ah "gone in a different direction" with the programming responsibilities.
Best: Until someone puts a quality live and local Urban-leaning morning show on in this town I shall have no vote for best. I have been Joynered, Parred, Smileyed, and Harveyed to death!
Best: Grant Paulsen (excellent reports and focuses on what is going on), Brit McHenry (really improved this year), Kirsten Berset & Game On Crew (like how they cover different subjects), Brian Mitchell, Washington Capitals TV Coverage (Joe, Craig, Al, Alan), Michael Jenkins, Jason Reid, Mark Maske, CSN Washington Post Game Show (especially Chick & Brian); the Larry Michael parodies on Holden & Danny (hilarious), Scott Jackson (very professional in how he "directs" the Locker Room Show)
Worst: Larry Michael (the absolute worst), Lavar Arrington (talking a lot does not equate to saying something), Steve Czaban (still a smug know-it-all, my wish is that he joins his buddy Andy Pollin on 570 where few will hear him; Kevin Sheen (the most arrogant personality in sports radio, thinks he is the smartest guy in the room and will not tolerate any other views).
best Britt mchenry . She really went to that elite level the top media go to in their early 30s. And she is only 27 i think. best . Grant Paulsen. very nice guy. Best Junkies. Still a funny morning show
Worst. The channel sports 4 girl. If she is going to be so bad. At least be attractive. She is neither. I don't get the hire at all. She does not know much about anything and is not good. Worst hire by channel 4 in their history. Worst larry Michael . Biggest homer
Best: WBAL-TV weekday news team. Far above the rest in Baltimore. Especially, Stan Stovall, Jane Miller and Jennifer Franciotti
Worst: Not sure who's the worse now. For years my pick was WJZ's Marty Bass, but closing in is WBAL's Lisa Robinson. Although WBAL's always been my 'go to station' not on weekends any more.
Best. Dave and DCRTV hands down. Having Mac McGarry as a father for 48 years and knowing that he had an incredible job that he loved. Worst. Losing Mac McGarry in 2013. We all will miss him very much. The McGarry's...
Best: NewsChannel 8 on DirecTV albeit in SD. Doug Hill, Jim Vance. WJLA not pre-empting as much network programming as in years past for moldy old movies and infomercials. Pat Collins' snow stick. Alison Starling. Leon Harris cheating death. RIP Mac McGarry. DCR-TV beard and Dave's website. Loo and Chili (when Christmas Music isn't being played). Impending baby from ex NBC-4 personalities Lindsay and Craig. The goofy "Texas football song" Eliot plays before each show.
Worst: The redundant programming seen on My 20 and Fox 5. Promo bugs now appearing on My 20 programming. "Chris Core, shilling for..." The degradation at times of the DCR TV mailbag into name calling and obsessions (hello Real Ahhhhh, please find something else to talk about other than "Geronimo/Sorce"), NBC-4 sports department. NBC-4's overuse of one or more of the following on over half of their stories: "This Just In" ,"Live Desk", "Right Now", "Breaking News", "Developing Story". WJLA's continued pre-emptions for news and sports specials (football previews, Oscar previews). WMAL. Ronnie Meehherrvis jewerly ads (from the diamond mines of South Africa - call 1-800-HER-LOVE). WASH-FM's same 100 Christmas songs over and over. Elliot headed to (WTF) WOR-AM (but AM is dead, according to what some say in the mailbag).
BEST: Alison Starling's new child. Recovery of Leon Harris. Retirement of NPR's Frank Tavares, whose over-articulated, raspy voice ruined my NPR listening experience for years. Tavares' replacement Sabrina Farhi, whose voice is a damn welcome relief. Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler, the National's announcers. Larry O'Connor—love him or hate him, he livens up the WMAL morning show.
WORST:Knuckleheads on this Board who still occasionally spell Ms. Starling's first name with two "L"s. Washington Post's Saturday edition, most of which is too superficial to be of use. The practice of virtually all local OTA TV news programs to use the first minute of a broadcast to tell us what they're going to say later on. Hey—your news is already light on the details, so don't use the short amount of time you have with useless introductions.
I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot but...
Best - Britt McHenry, Grant Paulsen, Jim Vance, Leon Harris, Britt McHenry, DirecTV adding NewsChannel 8, Autria Godfrey, Caps TV guys (Craig Laughlin, Joe Beninati, Alan May and Smokin' Al Kokin), Nats TV guys (FP Santangelo & Bob Carpenter), Britt McHenry, Bethesda Big Train Celebrity Softball Game, Table Manners, CSN's Michael Jenkins and Chick Hernandez, Adam Vingan, Japer's Rink, Sky Kerstein, Megyn Kelly on the Tonight Show, The Junkies, and Britt McHenry
Worsts - Dan Hellie leaving for NFL Network, Diana Russini (horrid), Leon Harris's health condition, Allbritton's Sale to Sinclair, Tim Brant, any and all news reports that gave wrong information trying to be the first to have the details (ex. Navy Yard Shooter), Brian Bolter leaving WTTG, WJLA & WTTG mucking up their morning news hosts, Doug Hill, secondary channels (This TV, Antenna TV, Me TV) not being available on DirecTV, Redskins & RG3 media coverage (OVERKILL!), FoxSports1, internet trolls and people who feel the need to chirp select media for attention, WJLA postponing episodes of Rookie Blue until 3am when they run a special, the media's need to always "figure out" why someone committed a heinous act and in turn glorifying their cowardly act instead of reporting just the fact and focusing on victims, Mike Wise
David B
Best....Baseball coverage in the DC and Baltimore markets--especially radio--continues to be excellent.
Worst....Too much guffawing inside the Glass-enclosed Nerve Center. "Kars for Kids" ad.
Best: Return of Don Geronimo, CSN Washington's Redskins Post Game show...as bad as this season has been....they are just great, WNEW(New signal needed CBS!), WAMU, WTOP, Jim Farley, Elliot(Wish you the best at WOR), Classic 98 Rock, Sirius XM: First Wave, 80's on 8, Classic Rewind, Classic Vinyl, Spectrum, BackSpin, 70's on 7 and 60's on 6. Dave for the best media coverage.
Worst: WNEW's piss poor signal, WMAL, Glenn Beck, Washington Post, Lack of a really good oldies station in Washington or a JACK for that matter, Elliot leaving for a news talk station.......makes no sense.
DCRTV Dave:
Best: WETA UK, MPT 2, The Gamut now on 820 AM and 104.3 FM, HFS975, WBIG, DC101, WBJC, Bluegrass Country 105.5, WETA-FM, WAMU, NPR's "Car Talk," PGC's Area 95.5, Tony Kornheiser, Mike O'Meara, the Junks, Oscar Santana, Robb Spewak, Buzz Burbank, Cerphe, Weasel, WTMD, WRNR-FM, WQSR, Channel 50's Antenna TV and This TV, Channel 7's MeTV, Sirius XM's 1st Wave, WTOP and WNEW, Jim Farley, Don Geronimo back on WJFK, Arch Campbell's NewsChannel 8 show, NBCWashington.com, Capital Weather Gang, Washingtonian's Carol Joynt and her "Q&A Cafe".....
Worst: Robert Allbritton selling Channel 7/WJLA and NewsChannel 8 to Sinclair, in effect setting all those loyal employees who worked for him for all those years adrift on sinking :"lifeboat," WTOP's increasing "happy talk," the Washington Post selling itself to the smiley-evil Jeff Bezos, who kept publisher Katharine Weymouth, who was largely responsible for running the newspaper into a ditch, the Post's continually dreadful print Style section and awful re-write gossip gals, WMAL for continuing to be a venue for White Male Angry Losers, WMAL's Chris Plante for continuing to be the worst radio talk show host in the DC market, WMAL's Rush Limbaugh for being on the losing end of just anout every candidate he "campaigned" for, sports talkers WJFK and WTEM for both being equally kinda bad, WNEW's signal and website, time for David Zurawik to hang up the Sun print column which has little "new" news in it.....


text:
IN THEIR review of noncardiac anomalies encountered in a large number of children with congenital heart disease, Noonan and Ehmke in 19631 noted a group of male and female children with pulmonic stenosis who also had stigmata suggestive of the Ullrich-Turner syndrome. In describing their syndrome, these authors included short stature, hypertelorism, mild mental retardation, congenital heart disease, ptosis, cryptorchidism, and various skeletal malformations. Summitt et al2,3 further defined the syndrome and suggested that the eponym "Noonan's syndrome" be employed to designate these patients apart from the Ullrich-Turner syndrome. In their report of seven boys with Noonan's syndrome, these latter authors emphasized that Noonan's syndrome differs in several important respects from the Ullrich-Turner syndrome. These differences included the following characteristics: (1) a milder and more variable pattern of shortness of stature; (2) frequent occurrence of pulmonary valvular or arterial stenosis; (3) a greater incidence of mental retardation; (4) functioning fetal gonads which
Thank you for submitting a comment on this article. It will be reviewed by JAMA Pediatrics editors. You will be notified when your comment has been published. Comments should not exceed 500 words of text and 10 references.
Do not submit personal medical questions or information that could identify a specific patient, questions about a particular case, or general inquiries to an author. Only content that has not been published, posted, or submitted elsewhere should be submitted. By submitting this Comment, you and any coauthors transfer copyright to the journal if your Comment is posted.
* = Required Field
Disclosure of Any Conflicts of Interest*
Indicate all relevant conflicts of interest of each author below, including all relevant financial interests, activities, and relationships within the past 3 years including, but not limited to, employment, affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, honoraria or payment, speakers' bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, donation of medical equipment, or patents planned, pending, or issued. If all authors have none, check "No potential conflicts or relevant financial interests" in the box below. Please also indicate any funding received in support of this work. The information will be posted with your response.
Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.
Download citation file:
Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.
More Listings atJAMACareerCenter.com >
Enter your username and email address. We'll send you a link to reset your password.
Enter your username and email address. We'll send instructions on how to reset your password to the email address we have on record.
Need assistance?
Athens and Shibboleth are access management services that provide single sign-on to protected resources. They replace the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Athens or Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.

subset: commoncrawl


text: En Noir drafts well-known models Yuri Pleskun and Cole Mohr into the mix to present the brand's Fall/Winter 2013 lookbook. The brand's early beginnings of revolving around leather-based executions continue onwards with several new stellar and ultimately more complex offerings. Headlining the drop is the Mosaic Leather Moto Jacket among others such as the Russian Trench Coat and the Leather Bullet Proof Vest, the Ivy Blue Leather Sweats, and the Ivy Blue Leather Button-Down. A small range of retailers will carry the brand including Barneys New York, SSENSE, Riccardi, The Webster, Patron Of The New and Union LA.


text:
Spoof News and Parody Search
Our search system is designed to help you find what you're looking for. Just type in a keyword below and we'll look through our entire library of stories to make you laugh.
Trump Claims His Microphone Was Faulty......you could actually hear him.
Mailing List
Get Spoof News in your email inbox!


text:
Fire in area nearby Santa Teresa port of entry
POSTED: 12:19 PM MDT Aug 16, 2013 UPDATED: 12:57 PM MDT Aug 16, 2013
Sunland Park Police and Fire Department responded to a semi-truck fire about a half mile north of the Santa Teresa international port of entry Friday morning.
A cement pumper truck came into contact with overhead power lines and caught on fire at about 10:15 a.m.
There were no injuries and Sunland Park Fire was able to extinguish the fire shortly after arrival. New Mexico State Police shut down New Mexico Highway 136 until the fire was under control. CBP shut down the northward flow of traffic at the port at the request of New Mexico State police.


text:
ABC Swaps 'Castle' Episodes in Wake of Boston Marathon Bombing
ABC is swapping the order of two Castle episodes out of sensitivity to the Boston Marathon bombing. The network has decided to postpone "Still" the episode of Castle originally scheduled to air April 22 until April 29 because the premise involves Beckett (Stana Katic) stepping on a bomb which needs to be disarmed. The episode originally scheduled to air April 29, "The Squab and the Quail", which is about Beckett guarding a billionaire, will now air April 22.


text:
Pic marks Bambu's first feature film project
Spain's Bambu Prods. has optioned film rights to U.S. novelist Sam Savage's bestseller "Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife."
Oozing black humor and sadness, Savage's debut novel follows a lonely rat in a Boston bookstore in the 1960s who learns to read by devouring books and looks for friendship from the nebbish bookstore owner and a solitary sci-fi writer.
"Firmin's" international film and TV rights are licensed by Seix Barral, part of Spanish publishing giant Planeta.
The English-language film, budgeted around €8 million ($11 million), is scheduled to shoot next year, mixing live-action and animation. Director and cast have yet to be set.
Spain's ICAA film institute will provide a $137,000 subsidy for script development. Bambu is in talks with Spanish broadcasters and film distribs for the project.
"Firmin" is the feature debut of Madrid-based TV fiction house Bambu, which bowed in 2008.Led by co-founders Ramon Campos and Teresa Fernandez Valdes, Bambu's TV hits include melodrama "Gran reserva" for pubcaster RTVE web La 1, and Antena 3 adventure series "Hispania," which is this season's top performing rookie skein in Spain.


text:
|Someone kept his resolution!
I enjoy winter time. We really do live in a gorgeous part of the world for it! This year in particular I have found myself captivated by the beauty of it. If you have driven from Tumbler Ridge to Dawson Creek this winter, you'll know what I'm talking about. Everything is pure white, even the trees. On a clear day with a blue sky, we would be hard pressed to find anything more beautiful!
Despite some of the bitter cold temperatures we have had, I have enjoyed it immensely! That is, until about boxing day. As stunning as our winters can be, I think almost everyone would agree that they last much too long for our liking. It doesn't take very long after Christmas for winter to feel like it's dragging on forever, does it?
The only thing that makes the next few months of snow and cold bearable is that we have a fresh start to a New Year. Ok, maybe it doesn't help a lot, but it does a little bit at least, right? A fresh new year, with new opportunities, new goals, new life.
The goals...ah yes, resolutions. I think we all set them, to one degree or another, and maybe some do stick to their resolutions. I remember last year seeing one friend's status update that she had actually stuck to an entire year of not drinking pop. It was pretty cool to see that someone had done it!
I've also seen many of my friends lose weight this year. I'm not sure if all of them had made a resolution to or not, but I am still proud of them for doing it! I've lost about 20 pounds in the past year, and I know how great it feels to not carry that around any more!
This year, there are definitely things in my life that I want to improve, like my organizational skills, my gardening skills, and my parenting skills. I haven't yet set them as specific goals yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what they will include. For example, I will work as much as I can with my 2 year old to be able to say her "s" sound so she stops saying "sock" with a hard "c" sound at the front. That should eliminate some of the embarrassment when my daughter belts out that word in public, hey? Also included in that category would be spending more quality time with the older two girls. I feel like since they started school I just don't get the one on one time with them that I used to. Maybe we will take them to Maui by themselves. Say, January 4th? Sounds like a plan to me! Wow, I'm getting a great start on these resolutions already!
While a majority of resolutions are broken within a week of the New Year, I still think it is important to set goals in our lives. Even if it's not a "resolution" made by January 1st, little goals throughout the year can really add up! An example from my life would be: in 2012, I made a goal to have a successful garden (after 8 years of wildly unsuccessful ones!), even if it was small. I happen to have a 3x10 raised planting box in my yard, so I decided to plant ONLY that, nothing more. I planted only a few vegetables, but I kept them watered and weeded, and they got plenty of love and attention from the kids. It worked! For the first time since I got married, I managed to grow a garden that was not choked out by weeds or shrivelled like a raisin. For two entire meals, we enjoyed every bite of the fresh veggies. Maybe this year my goal will be to grow enough for four meals!
As 2013 quickly approaches, whether you a resolution keeper or breaker, I encourage you to make at least one or two small, attainable goals sometime throughout the year and do them! Whether it's reading a book that you have been wanting to read, or finally running the Emperor's Challenge, you will feel such a sense of accomplishment knowing you stuck to it! Happy New Year everyone!


text:
Description: This soft 21 wale (number of cords per inch) corduroy is classic, durable and versatile. It is perfect for creating stylish shirts, skirts, dresses, light weight jackets and children's apparel. Colors include pink, red, white, blue, green, black and yellow. ...
go to product
Description: This medium weight ITY jersey knit is perfect for creating flowy tops, fuller skirts and drapey dresses. It has a super smooth hand, fluid drape and about 50% four-way stretch for comfort and ease. Colors include, shades of green, red, ...
Description: This medium weight fleece is anti-pill and ultra soft. It is perfect for creating jackets, vests, scarves, mittens, throws and more! Colors include red, orange, green, blue, purple, pink, black, white, yellow and coral.
Explore Fabric.com
We're here to help
Discover Fabric.com
Sewing Center