It seems like, no matter what I do, my radio show is always competing with some form of televised entertainment. For several weeks, I was forced to come up with some new “shtick” to compete various events– every single one, of course, fell on a Sunday evening between 8:00 and 10:00. First, it was the Superbowl. The Grammys were in there a few weeks after, then came the Oscars. I had to come up with new giveaways, bigger & better entertainment, just to attempt to get some sort of audience. A bit annoyed, I decided that, instead of channeling my anger through the microphone (and thus, the airwaves), I would compile a list of reasons why I dislike programs like these.

• Shows like Jay Leno are like one big advertisement. Sure, you get the opening monologue, some comedic skits and a funny headline once in a while, but seriously…
  • Stars only come on when they have a movie to plug, and that’s all they talk about while they’re on. If they had nothing to advertise, they wouldn’t bother coming on these shows.
    
  • Same thing with bands. All they are doing is trying to sell CDs. For example, I was closing the bar last night and was watching Last Call with Carson Daly. His special guest was a band called The Silversun Pickups. They played a song, providing a bit of entertainment for the audience– that part, I will not complain about. But it was immediately followed by plug for their CD and other ploys for (over) exposure. The business aspect is easy to understand, but what happened to the days were TV was solely for entertainment purposes, rather than marketing endeavors?
    • Can I go off on a Carson tangent for a moment, please? How does this guy even have his own television show? I mean, I think it’s great that some short, chubby dude with black nail polish and a bad haircut came from New-York-City-Radio-Disc-Jockey all the way to Internationally-Known-Television-Personality—hell, I’d love for a gig like that to fall into my lap. But this guy has no talent in this area.
      • My favorite Carson opinion comes from the Internet Movie Database message boards:
        • • “Carson Daly is THE worst TV show host ever. He’s not funny, his interview questions are boring… He seems like he’s not even listening but just waiting to ask the next rehearsed question. Why did he get his own show… He’s such a tool! Plus, now that he’s super skinny he just looks like a bug-eyed freak with a huge head.”
  • Awards shows like the Oscars are just about the same thing, in my opinion. It’s basically one huge advertisement– brought to you by film companies, ASCAP, and the like– to get the public to buy tickets to their movies.
    
    • In the case of Anna Nicole Smith, we complain that “celebrities” like she and Britney Spears should not have the magnitude of exposure that they do. However, what we do not realize is that it is our fault that they are in this limelight: We buy their products, watch their True Hollywood Stories and listen to their recordings. And they aren’t even that good!
• All anyone wants you to do is buy their product. I won’t lie– I hope that reading this will get you thinking (and listen to my radio show 😉 ). if you take nothing else away from my little blog entry, just remember why Whatever Her Name Is won Best Supporting Actress this year. You’ll probably be able to guess– it isn’t for her talent.

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Why the Oscars Suck and What Can Be Done to Save Them by Howie Green