I was driving my son to school this morning and, against my better judgment, turned on the Paul and Young Ron show on local classic rock station BIG105. He and his mother listen to it when she takes him to school. My son, being an adolescent with an adolescent mind, thinks the shtick they do is funny. I do not.
Today, there were two things that pissed me off. One, they had on that moron on television who eats anything and recently went to Cuba. Not one question was asked about his trip to Cuba, nor did he volunteer any information about it. I’ll refrain from opining since his idiocy has been covered here already. The other was an off-hand comment made by the female member of the cast that left me more than a little pissed off. One of the guys said that they were going to a party this coming September 11 and then, offhandedly, asked if they should party on that date. The young lady retorted, “well, it’s been eight years!”
What is the mind-set of a person who says that, and of the two others, who allow statements like that to pass without comment?
September 11 is a day none of us can ever forget. 2,996 Americans lost their lives that day. Is eight years enough for the families of those who died in New York City, or at the Pentagon, or in Shanksville, Pennsylvania to forget? Should I forget the images of the people jumping to their deaths? Of the towers crumbling into dust into lower Manhattan? Should I forget the hole in Pentagon? Should I forget the heroes of Flight 93? After all, it’s been eight years. Let’s move on, right?
Don’t think so. The station management, the hosts, and especially that brain-addled young lady who made the remark, owe an apology to the dead.
And to the living who will never forget.
I will never forget the images from that day and the people who lost their lives. I already bought a new American Flag to place in front of my house this Friday.
George sweetie …
Speaking from my years in radio … you experienced WHY those radio morning shows are called “Morning Zoo Crews”.
Quite possibly, you were not the only one struck by the flippant bullshit by the co-host(s). And maybe the station has already gotten phone complaints from other listeners. But YOU need to phone the station yourself and express, just as you did here, your anger and resentment at the comments made about September 11th.
While ‘free speech’ is usually the argument you may get in return, radio stations know if they lose listeners they lose sponsorship/bucks … and free speech comes with responsibility and with good judgement (decorum).
I’d call and voice my rant before the close of business …
THIS is what has happend … the end result the left in this country tried to reach … by the MSM refusing to show images from that day. “It’s been 8 years … {shrug} … get over it.”
The MSM does not cover, in all their championing of closing Gitmo, the fact that the families of 9-11 victims do NOT want Gitmo closed and the terrorists like KSM released. As also true with the USS Cole families … But the MSM will not cover their direct involvement. Imagine if we were hearing talk of closing prisons and freeing serial rapists and murderers.
As to images of 9-11-01 … the only image of the first plane (yeah, Rosie and Charlie, et al … was a plane) to hit the first tower was a French film crew that was doing a documentary on a NYC fire department. They were outside I think tossing a ball back and forth in the street, WTC behind them. The crew was filming the ball playing and conversation, while in the background you saw the plane enter the frame and explode into the side of the building. The camera guy said some comment in disbelief and the firemen then turned to see where the noise had come from and saw the fireball. They then rushed to suit-up to get to the scene … the French film crew of like 2 guys, following them to WTC. They were inside the hit tower (and I forget which was hit first … I think WTC 2) … besides the people jumping to their deaths, and the sight of the buildings crumbling, two things caught on a film that have gotten LITTLE or NO play that tore my soul to shreads were these:
1) there were these occasional very loud BANGs in the audio background as the filming was catching the firefighters assessing the situation in the building entranceway. Finally someone asked what that sound was … Someone muttered, “They’re jumping from the top floors …” The firefighters just looked quietly at eachother for a moment then went back to trying to figure out what just became evident was impossible.
2) I am assuming, and it’s been yrs since I saw the documentry, the firefighters were in the same WTC building … but there came the very loud impact and explosion … the firefighters thought something else was developing on the top floors of their building … then were informed another plane had hit the other WTC building.
The situation had just gone from impossible in human terms to unGodly … and you could see on their faces they were wondering who among them would be alive the next day. They knew it had just become a suicide mission with no winning outcome.
Maybe that radio broad needs to dig up that French documentary and watch it instead of listening to 9-11 type truthers and dismissive celebrities.
The `tude today to 9-11 is that of Holocaust denial level.
Call the radio station, George …
Reason # 2450 why I only listen to Satellite radio.
Drill, their venue us radio; mine is here. If one of our readers knows someone at BIG105 then they should forward my post. They can respond in the comments or send me an email.
If this is not enough to aggravate you my book group of all Jewish women of the we mustn’t ever forget variety read Professor Eire’s book in October of 2006. They did fine, considering they are all liberals. But at the end one of them couldn’t resist. “It happened almost fifty years ago. How long is he planning to go on about this? Isn’t it time he moved on?”
I can’t tell you how enraged I got. But there is no answering such a stupid thing. If someone is willing to contemplate saying ignorant things like this and like that lady did this morning, they are too far gone to reach.
But the station isn’t. So, I agree. Do make a stink about it.
George –
Just so I’m not miscommunicating … I meant for you to call and speak with the station manager or program director. NOT call into the radio show and get on the air to rip them a new one. That would be counter-productive to the point of you just becoming part of their entertainment and being told, when through with you, like Mark Levin does to, “Get off my phone you ‘whatever'” before they’d hang up on you.
No, I would get direct calls of complaints, more about some song or artist I’d played than something I’d said (though my practice was not to put any calls on the air unless a contest caller) … You do the ‘yeah-yeah-yeahs’ and whatnot then politely hang up while the commercials or song are playing.
You would call the main station line and ask to speak to the program director or station manager … in my case back in the day the manager was the owner (or part owner) but today stations are a conglomerate under one company say Clear Channel … so owner might be in NYCity or LA …
No, the worst thing an on air worker wonk at a radio station can have happen is the PD or station manager either come into the little broadcast studio and start off with, “I got a call …”, or summon the on air wonk into his office to discuss what happened. See contrary to what people think, the office staff and management really don’t listen too much or too closely to what’s going on on-air as it’s happening. Busy on the phone with whatever whoever drumming up business for the station.
My approach to your experience from this morning was to you as a “consumer” complaining to the manufacturer about an employee/product you have a complaint with.
Believe me, when I worked in local broadcasting I would phone other stations (radio/TV and even the local newspaper rag) even national networks, and complain as a consumer. Still do today.