thursday821

That's my buddy Scott Steele in Los Angeles. I met Scott in Tampa. It was right around the time of my divorce. I had money coming out of my ears from working my ass off. I was probably on track to make a few hundred thousand dollars a year. Scott was in radio as well. In fact he worked down the hall from me doing the same shift at night on his radio station. Scott's father was loaded. They lived in a gigantic house on the Bay in Tampa that was so elaborate it coulda been featured on Cribs. His folks still live there when they aren't at one of their vacation homes. For years, Scott worked for TV networks, finding them talent (people) for reality shows. I forgot to mention, he now lives in Hollywood, CA.

I would love to know how much money Scott and I went through in Tampa. It was insane, but a fun time. We were quasi celebrities back then. We were both on the radio, but we were always and I mean ALWAYS out in town no matter what night it was. Most likely we were in a pimp limo and had a ton of guls wid us. (Know what I'm sayin'?) We always had a ton of friends hanging with us, and when our drinks weren't comp.'d, our tabs were so big we'd laugh and put them on our refrigerator's to watch them hang down to the ground. I could write a Daily Dump each day for months about stories from that time period! You have no idea!

Scott knows Jamie Fox very well. They hang out all the time in L.A. In fact, Scott told me that once and I didn't know that I believed him all the way. HAHA SCOTT - Sorry dude. One day he called and told me to watch Leno one night. Jamie was on and half through his segment, Jamie said, "Sorry man, I just wanna say something. My boy Scott Steele is here with his mom and dad tonight and I just want to say HEY to them right now. They're in town from Florida." He then waved and the camera went to the three of them. Prertty cool, and Scott is on Jamie's Sirius satellite radio show.

I spoke to Scott for over an hour on the phone yesterday and he wants to talk about doing a syndicated radio show with us from Los Angeles. From his house he can see the Hollywood sign. He's right in the middle of it. Scott is very Hollywood; I am not. I'm up for a job, a big job, in a top 5 market. Its one that I would really love to have! Its MUCH closer to here also. It'd be great to GET that gig and then do the syndicated show WITH SCOTT FROM there! No gig to 2 major ones. Yeah that'll happen. You never know though. Something has to happen fairly soon. I have the itch and have HAD the itch for a month now. When I say "itch", I mean that I'm serious about getting my career back on track.

Radio is taking a beating right now. Although I've been out of the game for a little while, I still keep up with it. I've been critical of it often. The reason is because of passion for making the content better. When companies water down the product to save money, it hurts the bottom line. Throw in a shitty economy, and you have a red line disaaster. Radio MUST get back to being an entertainment medium instead of a juke box (music end) or a conservative, cookie cutter (talk end) that has the same topics and boring slants. Now that's my personal opinion, so no offense to those who may strongly disagree, but my ears say there's a lot of room for something different, compelling, and something that people will be loyal to.

There are some majorly talented people that are without radio jobs right now. Why? Companies are syndicating and voice tracking more and more than ever. Its homogenized radio with no local feel. Yeah, that's going to win! I can't tell you how many emails and Myspace messages I get from fellow radio people that are as miserable as they can be because they can't PAY someone to do a show. You want some proof of how bad it is?

The market in radio is awful right now:

Denial ain't just a river in EGYPT. Well, CL KING & ASSOCIATES analyst JIM BOYLE didn't write that, but he did say yesterday in an update to clients that WALL STREET projections for a 4% decline in JULY for radio would more likely be reported by the RAB to be a 6 or 7% percent revenue decline. It would be the 15th straight month of down revenue for radio.

In JULY data BOYLE has seen, the average large market was down 7%, mid-sized markets were off 5%, but small markets were up 2%.

"Radio has entered and seems stuck in a new, discouraging territory with the combined challenges of a secular slide and cyclical recessionary times," wrote BOYLE, continuing that the "gap has remained very wide" between small and large market radio, with smaller markets consistently outperforming their larger brethren. "What are radio leaders doing to change direction? Not much, it seems to us. The industry's larger groups do not appear ready to institute revolutionary changes yet in sales, programming, promotion or station clusters. There is a notable sense of denial of how harsh the prospects have been and continue to be for radio."

"The classic CEO reply is [that] radio is not bleeding as badly as newspapers, continued BOYLE. "We concede there is too little radio ad demand, but there is also too little rate card integrity and too little investment in radio's product and people for the long term. It very much looks to us as all rear-guard counterpunching."

I have to say something about Michael Phelps. First of all, this picture is gay.

Second, with an armspan of 6'7", size 14 feet, standing at 6'4", a torso of a man that stands 6'8", PLUS double jointed knees and elbows, isn't he pretty much at an advantage? In other words, wasn't it a little easier for him to NATURALLY swim well? I can't help it, and I know I will get ripped for talking about the golden boy of the Century, but cannot help it! He's a genetic specimen that has a body to naturally swim well. Does that mean he didn't have to work as hard aas other swimmers? I don't know, but logic would tell me that he has a competitive edge over the other swimmers due just to his body being the way it is. He works out, practices, burns 4,000 calories per workout...yay...good for him, but looking at him underwater swimming is like watching a friggin' DOLPHIN! He should give all the gold medals back and take all silvers or bronze! Wait, upon looking at that picture, he should sue SI for making him look like he's wearing a woman's top. I loved watching Phelps as did most of you probably, but the sheer fact that it was easy for him makes me, well, yeah - JEALOUS! What a bastard!

I am guilty of following this case like a house wife. Not that there's anything wrong with that! What's sad is that this has become a circus. BTW, sorry for the "artwork". I suck at it but at least it gets a point across. I feel two different ways about Leonard Padilla, and in America by the way, its pronounced PAH DILL AH, not PAH DEEYA - so there! I can't believe how many shitty emails I got over that one thing!

Anyway...

As of this writing, Casey isn't out yet but is supposed to be later this morning. Will she run? I doubt it. Where in the Hell could she go without someone knowing her? NO WHERE and she certainly wouldn't be able to get out of the Country. She aint gonna kill herself. This is a woman that didn't cry until she was sentenced. She supposedly has a very cute little 3 year old that's been kidnapped and never cried. Since I never saw her cry until she was charged with a crime shows me that she's too selfish to ever kill herself. This woman slutted up her clothing and partied knowing her daughter was missing. She's WAY too self absorbed to be hanging herself or something. Isn't gonna happen.

Will she talk to Leonard Padilla? Leonard says after she gets her nails done and has a drink or two, she will probably open up to HIM about where her daughter is. Dude, have you gone full retard? She is suck a habitual liar, no one is going to know anything.

All I know is that this has become the biggest circus-like spectacle I've seen since the Natalie Holloway case. I get pissed at myself for getting so deeply involved. Is Caylee alive? Has she been kidnapped? Has Casey said ANYthing that's true? Where's the DNA evidence? Was there really a baby sitter? Why have the cops not done a more extensive search in the woods and other places for this girl? Are her boobs real?

Padilla paid $50,000 last night to spring Casey. For $50,000, he got the most publicity anyone has gotten since they trained for a lifetime to become a human dolphin. 50K would get you a schedule of 60 second spots on your local radio station, not a global amount of constant streaming on every TV network known to man! Is Padilla exploiting a missing child for his own personal gain? Of COURSE he is, but that's what America is. America's heartbeat continues because of the media. Bottom line. If he did this for his personal desire to be known, that's his right. Think about how many people are well known and rich that we can't stand. It seems like the more we hate them, the more the media flashes their mugs on our screens! Jesus, look at Paris Hilton! He says he did this because he cares about the missing baby. What about all the other kids that are missing? Where's THEIR help Leonard. I, like you, basically think this guy is the biggest creep on the planet. However, he is going to be the man behind my awesome TV viewing later this morning when Casey walk right out of that jail in Orlando. For that, LEONARD, I thank you. If you can assure that she be wearing a tight white tee shirt so that the rain thats falling in Orlando covers her in water, making the shirt really see through, exposing her erect nipples, I'll start a donation box on the website to help you recover your $50K! (Inside joke.)