Greetings to St. Louis

So, it's nearly 2 AM and we're making the rounds of the sites put up by our colleagues in the radio/TV-online world. Our first late Sunday night stop is always NorthEast Radio Watch, crafted at around this time with care by our long-time friend Scott Fybush.

A less regular stop is Mike Anderson's excellent STLMedia.net, produced by a former radio veteran in the St. Louis market. But we've been reading regularly since KTRS/550's mid-morning host got himself into hot water and got fired for a verbal slip regarding Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

Anderson was once associated with that talk radio station. As we remember, he designed their initial web presence, and also may have appeared occasionally on KTRS' afternoon drive talk show... which is about the only show that survived a massive staff purge after former WSPD/Toledo program director Al Brady Law took over. The station is now half-owned by the St. Louis Cardinals.

We read with interest Anderson's characterization of the station a St. Louis newspaper writer calls "KTR-MesS", and his description of roughly a 10 year history of what he considers to be mismanagement by the station.

So, we were surprised when someone tipped Anderson off to OMW, and he mentioned it in a recent entry.

"If you think it gets rough here ... on media performers, check out OhioMediaWatch. It's a bit more TV and sports-centric, but no less critical. This guy REALLY holds their feet to the fire. Thanks to JJ for the link."

Wow.

Are we rough here? Do we hold local media types' "feet to the fire"? We thought we were actually a bit mild. Sure, we poke occasional fun at WTAM afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno. We've also had some words about WOIO/WUAB's "19 Action News" - hey, we can't help it if your anchors go naked - and maybe even a comment or two about sports talk WKNR/850.

But we try not to be mean-spirited here. Honest, we don't. Despite some occasionally pointed criticisms, we actually listen to and watch all of the above. We've even said good things about them from time to time. And while we believe some stations may not be, well, run as well as they could be (no names, here)...we've long since abandoned regular pot-shots at said stations, as much as some of their actions frustrate us as a listener, and as someone with a broadcasting background.

As we said before, it is what it is. Ranting about stuff here, and about what we believe to be, umm, not very smart decisions by TV/radio management in some cases, gains us nothing. Wondering why things are done, when ratings show that people listen or watch in numbers, gains us nothing. We're not referring to any specific station with that last line, for various reasons. It's just a general thought.

Our style these days is more along the lines of a slight ongoing joke...see the "afternoon motormouth" line above. It's mostly tongue in cheek, but considering that Mr. Anderson has pretty much been on the rampage with the new St. Louis Cardinals' radio flagship and in particular, has been locked in a battle with its early afternoon host (to the point where that host has threatened to remove Mr. Anderson's web presence)...well, we're not battling here as far as we know.

Oh, as far as the "TV/sports" lean...it's been that way the past couple of weeks since those subjects have pretty much dominated local media news. Just wait till someone flips a music format or two...

But...thanks for the link, Mike Anderson, and we heartily encourage anyone with even the slightest interest in the St. Louis media scene to check out STLMedia.net.