Tim Riley Axed
I am not a firm believer in the “Rick Emerson Brand”. I am a firm believer in the “Tim Riley brand”, and as such sense that my listenership to “The Rick Emerson Show” is going to wane a great deal — whatever my “P” rating falling from “P-1” to “P-2” — or is it “P-2” to “P-3”?
This, of course, is a shame. Emerson and Sarah Dylan are solid professional producing and hosting a radio program in the right way. But the effect is similar to that era of the Rick Emerson Show where the program was clearly being stomped under the jack-booted consultants of Entercom and the nightmare of fitting into something called a “Max 910”. I sort of felt lousy fading away and turning the dial — this was not Emerson’s fault and he certainly carried on the best he could under those horrendous circumstances– but I had no other choice. It was with that that I always had a mixed reaction to the destruction of “Max 910” — on one hand Emerson, and Clyde Lewis for that matter — were off the air; on the other hand, this goddamned exercise in hyper dilineated market segmentation and insulting of everyone’s intelligence was dead.
So what do you do when the chief ingredient that made a radio program entertaining is taken out? The figure whose looming presence made some diversions from Rick Emerson and Sarah Dylan relatively listen-worthy? Inevitably my Core is just going to break down into Cum…ulative. This time around I can’t even really lay waste to the Corporate Behemoth — CBS is not Entercom. Oh well. The one thing I can say about “The Rick Emerson Show” as it goes forward: it’s not like there’s anything better on the radio dial.
I was walking down the street one day, when a guy approaching me yelled out “What are your choices for bread?” Confused and puzzled was I. Then I looked down and saw I had a Viso bottle on me, and groaned silently to myself. Once I safely passed, I provided the answer. “White. Wheat. Sour dough. English muffin. Bagel.” Does this make a radio listener community? Who can say?