One thing about being in the newspaper, TV and radio businesses, of course, is that the older you get, the more you've seen -- and the more you don't want to see.
I suppose the same thing could be said about being in the used car business or the fertilizer-selling business.
It's just seems, though, that the situations and the people [at least some of them] in the newspaper, TV and radio industries are a little goofier than the guys and girls selling Scott's Plus 2 in the Walmart garden department.
Scott Pierce [pictured on the job at the right] has been around the block a time or two. He's got a day job, and he's also the play-by-play announcer for Drake football and women's basketball. Obviously, he knows the media business very well after all these years.
He has some thoughts today in this e-mail to me:
Ron:
"I haven't picked up The Locust Street Liar in many months now. Paying more for less quality is not in my DNA. I still haven't figured out how an industry can charge more for its content and advertising when circulation drops. In my old radio days, we couldn't do that.
"I do read it online. That takes about 2 minutes. However, I did click on Rick Brown's blog with comments from Johnny Orr about the death of Wayman Tisdale. It was good stuff. Orr is never a bad interview. And I think Rick is a top-notch writer.
"So, here's the question. If Rick Brown is a sports writer....and if Johnny Orr is a sports personality connected to the area Rick Brown writes for....and Johnny Orr says something funny and interesting to Rick Brown about a topic that people in said area would be interested in....why does that appear on a website and not in the paper?
"The last time I paid 50 cents for the paper, it said at the top 'The Newspaper Iowa Depends On' (boy, did I set you up on the bold comment section below). Not the website Iowa depends on. Am I nuts? Geez, I've got to stop setting you up on that comment section below.
"One more thing regarding the changing landscape with sports radio here. My last post to you drew a heated response to me personally from Joel McCrea, the GM of Clear Channel here, accusing me of jumping to conclusions. Since his bosses at Clear Channel arrived two days later at the same conclusions I did, I guess I didn't jump that far.
"In addition, I questioned why Clear Channel local management, some 72 hours after the fact, had not at least apologized to the listeners for the infamous incident. Their apology came within a few hours of your post. I was told one of the management officials
was in Mexico that weekend. I guess the 'world wide' part of the web doesn't go there.
"I did take note of the "nationwide" search they were conducting for Larry Cotlar's, Geoff Conn's, and Marty Tirrell's replacements. I guess the nation got a bit smaller. Because the search took them down the hall to the WHO studios for one replacement, down a couple of blocks to Grand Avenue for another, and to Omaha for an out-of-work person (that took a month to land). Sounds like the recruiting budget of a Division III school.
"I have not listened to any of the new shows, yet. I will someday, with the exception of Murphy & Fales. Andy Fales did an ambush piece on The Jock a number of years ago. He called me wanting to do a story about the changing landscape of sports radio in Des Moines. But when he arrived, he peppered me with questions about KXNO beating us in the latest ratings book. He never did a follow-up when we beat them back a few ratings books later."
Scott Pierce
[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Thanks for writing, Scott. I always enjoy your observations. It's just a wild guess, but I'll bet you're referring to the Des Moines Register when you write about the Locust Street Liar. Correct me if I'm wrong. I, too, am mystified that the Register doesn't display in the newspaper something good that one of its writers puts in a blog on the paper's website. I think it's a waste to use a good blog on just the website because, whether the paper wants to admit it or not, there are a lot of people don't even know there is a Register website. Not everyone has a computer these days. Others don't use a computer even if there's one in the house. Your comments about Rick Brown [pictured at the left] are on-target. He is, as you say, a top-notch writer. Indeed, I'm pretty sure he won the latest Iowa Sportswriter Of the Year award. I, too, think his comments about Johnny Orr and the late Wayman Tisdale should have appeared in the paper. The story could have been used as a sidebar with the Tisdale obituary. Not all blogs on the Register website are strong enough to appear in the paper, but some are. And if they are, they should appear in the print edition of the paper. Don't forget, Scott, there are people in the newspaper business who think the end of the print version of papers is clearly in sight. A few papers appear online only now, and there are some in the industry who feel they'll all be online in the near-future. Frankly, I don't feel that way. I think there will always be a print version of the Des Moines Register and the Cedar Rapids Gazette. They probably won't look like they do now, but there will always be some version of a local newspaper. I'll reprint Rick Brown's blog about Orr and Tisdale at the end of this column. By the way, Scott, the Register now costs 75 cents at vending machines, so you're saving even more money by not buying it anymore. Obviously, you're not the only person who has quit spending money on the paper. The latest circulation figures tell us that. I haven't been able to listen to much sportstalk radio lately, but I appreciate your thoughts on it. It looks like the decision-makers have been able to hire people who will keep the "F" word off the air for a while, and that's one thing my pastor and I regard as an improvement. Keep up the good work, Scott. The college football and basketball seasons aren't that far away].
*
Rick Brown's blog in the Register about Wayman Tisdale:
Johnny remembers Tisdale
by Rick Brown
May 15, 2009
Oklahoma had escaped with an overtime victory at Hilton Coliseum that March night in 1983.
But a visitor came calling to the Iowa State locker room to offer his congratulations. It was Sooners star Wayman Tisdale. Retired Iowa State coach Johnny Orr remembers the game well.
Tisdale had scored 46 on the Cyclones in a 28-point victory in Norman, Okla., the month before. It could have been more, too.
“I got tired of looking at him,” Orr said. “I told (Oklahoma coach) Billy Tubbs, “When are you going to take him out? You’ve only got us down 30.’ ”
Tubbs did take Tisdale out early.
“They took it easy on us,” Orr said.
But the rematch was a different story. Orr came up with a plan to put his top defender, Ronnie Harris, on Tisdale in Ames, even though Harris was at a significant size disadvantage. Harris limited Tisdale to 16 points.
“After the game, Wayman came over and said, “You played a heck of a game,’ ” Orr recalled. “He told Ronnie, “Man, you did a helluva job.’ ”
Orr says that Tisdale and Danny Manning of Kansas were the best Big Eight players he ever coached against at Iowa State.
“Wayman was always a nice guy,” Orr said. “And an absolutely phenomenal player.”
[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: The next time I see Rick, I'll have to ask him if my byline was on those Iowa State-Oklahoma game stories he wrote about. I covered a million of Johnny Orr's games at Iowa State, and I recall being on hand for some of Tisdale's games against the Cyclones, but I'm not sure which ones. I've forgotten when Rick came to the paper, so maybe he was the guy who covered the Tisdale/Cyclone games he wrote about. Or maybe it was Buck Turnbull or Bob Dyer. Like I said, I'll have to check with Rick, Whatever, Tisdale was a sensational player and Orr was just what Iowa State's basketball program needed at the time. I enjoyed covering the guy and his teams].
