From Hooters To BP and A Tip Of The Hat To Burger King

Can you believe it – It’s June already!  We’re already half-way through the year 2010 and what do we have to show for it?  Not a whole lot – but there are enough bits and pieces laying about that I think I can gather together to form another hodgepodge of random thoughts and ideas that I like to call “Frostbites”.

It doesn’t take a whole lot to make me feel old.  Last week, a bunch of the guys that I use to work with at RadioFirst in Port Huron got together for lunch and the restaurant that they chose to meet at – Hooters of Port Huron.  First, let me say – we had a good time at Hooters and the food was good (although a tad expensive for what we got), but at the end of the lunch I couldn’t shake that “I’m too damn old for Hooters” feeling.  It use to be that I could say that I was old enough to  be any one of the Hooter girls’ father – but I have actually gotten to that age where I could be their grandfather – and that’s a jolt to the old psyche.  When you get to be my age and you’re face to face with a Hooters waitress bent over the top of the table showing some cleavage as she takes your order – you know you’re just one step away from entering “dirty old man territory” if you decide to “take in the sights”. Once you realize that you have become too old for a place like Hooters – the next question that one asks himself is – “when did this happen?”  Yup, it was only yesterday that I was of the Woodstock generation and now I’m in that generation that takes all of the medications and medicines advertised during the evening network newscasts.

Pet Peeve.  As I have mentioned in past blogs – I love the Sunday morning news shows and journalism review shows like “Reliable Sources” with Howard Kurtz on CNN – but some television journalists can really piss me off.  I can’t tell you how many times that I have heard a television journalist bitch that they aren’t being taken seriously and in the next breath call the news broadcast that they are working on “a show”.  To me – a news broadcast is a news broadcast and a show is something that Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland use to put on in the barn or that Jim Henson use to do with the Muppets.  If you want to be taken seriously – call what you do what it is – if it’s a show that you aren’t a journalist you’re an entertaining minstrel  -- but that’s just my opinion.

Candy bar anyone?  I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to candy bars – you can’t go wrong with a Snickers with its caramel, nougat, peanuts and milk chocolate covering.

“Flavor of the month”.  Tomato and basil – it has got to be the new “in” flavor.  One of the newest flavors of Nabisco’s Wheat Thins just happens to be tomato and basil and Lay’s has introduced a new tomato and basil flavored potato chip.  I give high marks to Nabisco’s tomato and basil Wheat Thins – the new flavor element makes this cracker more enjoyable….the same thing can’t be said for the Lay’s chip though.  The tomato and basil flavoring is not as pronounced on the potato chip as it is on the cracker – you get a bit of the tomato taste, but nothing like what Nabisco is giving on you the cracker.  If I had to make a choice between the two for pure snacking enjoyment – Nasbisco’s Tomato and Basil Wheat Thin wins this one.

Burger King Is Selling What?  I love Burger King.  Their Steakhouse XL burger is more than just tasty – it’s downright delicious.  I even give them a tip of the old cap when it comes to their dollar version of McDonald’s Sausage and Egg or Ham and Egg McMuffin.  Both of them are not only delicious – but come on – they’re a dollar – which means that the price you would pay for one breakfast sandwich at McDonald’s you can get two just as tasty breakfast sandwiches at Burger King – what a deal!  But, I still can’t wrap my head around going to Burger King for ribs.  Yup, Burger King raises the bar on the premium side of their menu with ribs – what’s next lobster tail?

Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse…..

Is there nothing more sad than some of the pictures coming out from BP’s Gulf Coast oil spill of birds and wildlife so drenched in oil that they can’t move are left to die?  It took over a month for BP to finally contain some of the leak, but who knows how long this fix is going to last after seeing some of the results from the work of BP’s team tech team to stop the leak.

It’s not enough that the people from BP that are trying to stop the leak are a bunch of bumbling idiots – we have their fearless leader, Tony Hayward, the big mucky muck CEO of BP who is probably going to go down in history as the king of all idiots.  Hayward said in an interview this week that he wished that the whole thing with the spill was over with because he “wants his life back”.  He wants his life back!!!  Give me a break Hayward!  Eleven people died on that rig when it exploded, Mr Hayward – they’d like their life back, too.  The lives and livelihood on millions of people are being affected by this disaster of yours and it’s safe to say that the waters in the Gulf Coast will never be the same and you want your life back, Mr. Hayward.  And now they’re saying that oil is being spotted on the Florida shores and it’s a good chance that the east coast is going to see some of BP’s oil come their way – Mr. Hayward – these people want their life back, too.

There’s more news from BP that’s pretty astounding.  The federal government just presented them with the first bill for this disaster – something like sixty-seven million dollars and this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone – nobody has seen a dime from BP.  What is BP spending their money on?  Believe it or not – it’s a fifty million dollar ad campaign that advertising experts have told CNN.com is “an expensive and probably ineffective bid to rehabilitate the energy giant's image.”

The ads – both print and TV – feature BP’s CEO Tony Hayward telling everyone how BP is working to fix the problem and clean-up the mess – they don't show you the other side of BP. You see, the same week this ad campaign come out -- a representative from BP, Randy Prescott,  opens his mouth to assure seafood lovers that they shouldn't worry, because "Louisiana isn't the only place that has shrimp".  He may be right, but it's his company's oil spill that's killing the shrimping areas in that part of the country and who knows if BP can ever restore area for fish and shrimp to return there..  

I find it kind of ironic that BP has a public relations campaign already set up to “restore their image” and has yet to fully fix the problem that has presented them with this huge public relations problem to begin with. 

So, it is with sadness that I present “The Biggest Dickheads in the World” award to goes to Tony Hayward and BP Oil.  I urge everyone to boycott BP and Mr. Hayward, I  hope that you will never get your life back and that you relive this tragedy over and over again.  I would also love to see you criminally prosecuted in some way or another for this mess and that you rot in hell for being such an insensitive asshole -- but that's just my opinion.  Mr. Hayward and BP Oil – this tar ball filled with oil is for you!

Elvis, DVRs and Fast Food Value Menus -- It's A February Editon of Frost Bites

Elvis Presley….DVRs…..Fast food value menus….The return of free form radio…and a shout-out to a good friend. In the time honored dot-dot-dot tradition of the late Bob Talbert of the Detroit Free Press and Larry King’s of USA Today – I now present a few quick takes on things going on in my world with February Frost Bites:

A Hunk A Hunk Of Burning Book: I should have bought it when I seen it on the shelf in the book department at my local Meijer store – but I didn’t and now I’m beating myself up for it – I’m talking about the book “Baby, Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him” by Alanna Nash. When I cracked open the book in the store, the first thing that hit my eye was a story about how Elvis had a hard time dealing with a famous Hollywood starlet in bed because she was somewhat loud and vocal in the bedroom. It peaked my interest at that point – but I didn’t want to put down the twenty plus bucks at the time – but now I really want to read it and its no longer in stock in the book department. Damn! I’m getting even more worked up about not having purchased this book after I read the review of it by Janet Maslin of the New York Times. In her review of the book, Ms. Maslin says, “she (Nash) manages to collect all the madness, badness and sadness of the Elvis myth in one exhaustive and (let's face it) embarrassingly tempting volume.” I want this book and I want it now!!!!

It’s Made TV Even Better: I never could understand why people with TiVos and DVRs praised them so much until I got one of my own. Before I got a DVR – I thought that it was just a glorified version of a VCR and nothing more. We have all have lived through the Beta and VHS stages of a VCR – so another video recording format didn’t seem like it would be any different – boy, was I wrong! A DVR makes time-shifting TV so much easier. DVRs are so easy to use you’ll record things and discover later that just don’t have time to watch everything that you have stockpiled on the DVRs hard-drive.

One of the nicest things about a DVR is that you can quickly replay something that you didn’t catch the first time around and being able to zip through commercials in a few pushes of a button is another added plus. I’m addicted to my DVR I’ll be driving around town listening to something on public radio and something will be said that I wish I had my DVR remote with me to replay it back. That’s when I tell myself, “Hey stupid – you’re in your car driving and they don’t make DVRs for radios!” Maybe that could be the next feature on car radios in the future.

Speaking of Radio – CBS Radio is doing something right – On the internet: There was once a time when the only thing you could find on FM radio was beautiful music and then something called “underground radio” was born in cities such as San Francisco, Detroit, and Boston. One such station that I can remember listening to as a kid growing up in the late 60s was WABX-FM in Detroit. When you tuned in to WABX – you could hear everything from B.B. King to The Beatles….Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention to Chick Corea….David Bowie to Bachman Turner Overdrive….and comedy from the National Lampoon Radio Hour, the Firesign Theater and Cheech and Chong. After hearing shouting Top 40 jocks on AM radio – it was a treat to the ears to listen to an underground radio station with disc-jockeys who were creative in their ability to take diverse styles of music and blend them into one enjoyable format. Well… underground radio is back in a new form – on the internet with Free Form WBCN out of Boston.

A CBS owned and operated Radio station -- Free Form WBCN is actually one of the HD channels of WZLX in Boston that is now being streamed on the internet. It’s one of the stations that you can find on AOL Radio and Yahoo Radio or you can click on their line at http://player.play.it/player/player.html?v=4.7.124b&id=20630&onestat=wzlxhd3 and a CBS Radio player will pop up with the station preset for you. At the present time the music being played is computer generated with some announcer drops…but they are gradually adding live announcers to the streaming broadcasts. It’s great to click on this station and hear music from Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones , Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Cheap Trick, Curtis Mayfield, The Kinks, Marvin Gaye and the Beatles. If you grew up listening to underground radio stations in the 60s and 70s – I urge you to click on the Free Form WBCN link and enjoy free form radio once again.

I was just thinking – CBS owns WYCD in Detroit – which happens to be the frequency of the old WABX. Wouldn’t it be sweet if CBS Radio Detroit did a local version of Free Form Radio in Detroit with a Free Form ‘ABX on one of WYCD’s HD channels? New programming like that on an HD channel could entice more people to go out and by HD radio receivers.

I’m Your Fast Food Value Menu Bitch, I will admit to you that Madison Avenue has me by the balls when it comes to fast food restaurant advertising. If I see something new advertised on the tube at any one of the fast food places – I’m there – and this week Madison Avenue has me visiting my local Wendy’s. Right now – the big value menu promotional push at Wendy’s is with their Spicy Hot Chicken Nuggets….well, I like spicy chicken nuggets and priced at five nuggets for 99¢ -- I had to try them. They aren’t as spicy as I thought they would be – but they’re pretty damn tasty for the price and you can’t beat them with the ranch dipping sauce. (One order is good to whet your chicken nugget appetite, but the smart thing is order two – hey, what’s ten nuggets between friends, right?)

And if you haven’t noticed -- there’s another big battle going on at your favorite fast food restaurant with each of them wanting you to buy their value menu double cheeseburger. I have tried the double cheeseburgers from the Big 3 (McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s) and my least favorite is the one that McDonald’s offers. The Burger King value menu double cheeseburger is a lot more meatier than McD and Wendy’s and with the flame broiled taste – I give this burger high marks. Wendy’s, on the other hand, has a meaty burger and the plus that it has going for it is that is has that hot off the grill greasy flavor that none of the other fast fooders offer.

It helps to have computer geeks as friends. The modem on my computer died this weekend. This modem has performed admirably through out the years – in not one, but two different computers. There will be no funeral or memorial services for the modem – you are just asked to worship at the altar of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and do what you can to make these two gentlemen happy. Despite what they might tell you – those two geek bastards do control our world and everything in it.

All jokes aside, when it comes to the modem on my computer I am grateful to Sean Richardson – my old radio buddy from my years at RadioFirst in Port Huron – who took the time out of his busy day to install a new modem in my computer. I sometimes kid Sean about the computer world that he lives in, but he’s always been there to help make using the computer a lot easier for me. He doesn’t have to do what he does – but this computer geek has a heart – and a big one at that. Thank you for all of your help, Sean.