Shrugging my shoulders at the Price is Right announcement

I've ranted about celebrity radio hosts before, and I'm feeling the same way about Drew Carey getting the hosting gig on The Price is Right. A blogger over on TV Squad asserts that Carey is the perfect choice.

Drew Carey is a better choice than Rosie O'Donnell. Osama Bin Laden would be a better choice than Rosie O'Donnell. But, that doesn't make Carey the perfect choice. His Whose Line is it Anyway hosting gig was the worst part of that show. He's not off-the-cuff funny. Remember when he would try to improv with the other "players" on that show? Horrible.

Of course, CBS has already seen an example of his game show hosting prowess with the new show Power of 10. None of us will see it until it premieres on August 7th. But, CBS must have loved what they saw.

I don't get the drive to have an established celebrity hosting game shows these days. There's always an initial burst of attention for the show, but how many of these have staying power?

How cool would it have been if they had found a relative unknown like Conan O'Brien was back when he first got the Late Night job?

I'm willing to give Drew Carey a chance, but I'm still disappointed in CBS's choice.

Does God approve of a Sirius-XM merger?

Ever since XM and Sirius burst onto the scene, I've been amazed at their respective PR machines. It seemed like even the most insignificant move by either company instantly got national media coverage. Now, with the proposed merger looming, the combined PR efforts have officially gotten ridiculous.

A press release came out on Friday with this headline:

His Eminence Edward Cardinal Egan Applauds Satellite Radio Merger

Cardinal Egan is the Archbishop of New York. His take is that he likes the fact that the Catholic programming already on Sirius would get more exposure if and when the merger happens.

So, satellite radio is enlisting support from top religious figures now. I'm glad that the Catholic Church has handled all of their problems and can now turn their attention towards satellite radio mergers. I wonder how much of a donation had to be made to the Church to get this kind of endorsement.

Plugola from AMC

Weird thing happened. I was watching some preview video of AMC's new show Mad Men. After I was done, I walked to the water cooler and noticed a fax with the AMC logo on it in the trash can. I rescued the fax that somebody had wisely thrown away:

If you can't read it, a guy at a PR company called Great! is offering some free martini glasses to jocks who will talk up AMC's new show Mad Men. Not only talk it up, but actually adhere to the supplied copy points. If the jock emails an aircheck to this guy, then the Three Martini Lunch Box is on its way.

I guess nobody at Great! ever heard of plugola. It's an FCC violation and goes against the internal policies of most radio station owners. In this context, "plugging" something in order to receive a product or cash for free is considered plugola.

Plugola has never been all that strictly regulated by the FCC, so I can see where an outsider might think receiving martini glasses in exchange for plugging Mad Men is OK. But, had I done it, I'm pretty sure I would have been in quite a bit of trouble, if not fired.

Great! probably got some clueless jocks to do this. It's too bad that Great! is encouraging FCC violations.

I was going to talk about Mad Men anyway, since it's getting so much buzz. The show is about advertising executives in the 1960s, and the sometimes sleazy tactics that they use. Kind of ironic.

FARK.com headline made me do a double take

You wouldn't think there would be any humor in a report that Turkey has bombed northern Iraq, but this headline on FARK.com made me blink and then laugh:

Turkey bombs Northern Iraq. They're hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement

Lots of funny comments ensued, of course.

Oldies back on WCBS-FM

I'm not sure why it pleases me that WCBS-FM in New York is switching back to oldies, but it does. I've written about New York radio before, and I remember CBS-FM as an oldies station when I lived in the area. I was too young to be interested in oldies, but I remember their TV commercials. I even remember Howard Stern making fun of them back in the mid-80's. So, maybe it's a nostalgic thing. As I get older, it's kind of cool to see something like CBS-FM make a return to oldies.

WCBS at some point switched to Jack-FM when that fad was sweeping through the country. I've heard the brand on other stations before, and I've just never really understood the appeal after listening for any length of time. I guess New Yorkers didn't get it either. WCBS's GM thanked the oldies fans for being true believers while the format was gone.

Maybe that's what pleases me. Is it OK if just for a moment I believe that a huge company like CBS radio actually responded to the demands of listeners? I mean, I know in my head that that's not the case. But, maybe this is a sign of things to come as radio tries to stay relevant and responsive to the public.