Damn! I Done Got Banned From A Fan Page!

Yes, once again a post that has its origins from Facebook.

For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, you already know the abbreviated version of this. For those of you who aren't, get ready for a post about a local business being super thin skinned.

First, a little background: We have a local radio station, WCCC 106.9 on your FM dial, that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. What reasons? Like firing popular on-air talent and calling it "lay-offs". Like screwing around with the music programming. Like alienating your listeners.

Anyways, the reaction to all of these moves has been to say at the very least, intense. A lot of people are pissed because the bulk of well known personalities have been replaced by cheaper not as good radio talent, and they've been letting the station know about on their Facebook page.

Me? I've been very critical of what they've been doing, not only with the firing and calling it "lay-offs" (please, you and I know that in the entertainment and sports industries, when you let on-air talent or managers/coaches go, it's not called "lay off", it's called FIRED. have you seen a manager from a 100+ loss baseball team get "laid off"?), their choice of music (hard rock station that also has U2 and Motley Crue as part of their play list, along with hard rock bands doing covers of poppy 80's tunes), the heavy amount of commercials and talk, and the fact that they don't give a flying F about their listeners.

Anywho, this past Wednesday (9/1), I saw a comment from a listener (Bobby was his first name) ask if the station would play a few particular indie rock bands or some punk music. Legitimate question, but no way in hell a commercial radio station is gonna deviate from their pre-formatted play list. So here comes little old me to throw my two cents in.

Did I mention that I was already on their radar for a few of the more biting comments I've left in the past month or so?

"Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, they won't do your request because they are a COMMERCIAL radio station and not a COLLEGE radio station which cares about their listeners."

After making that comment, I continued with my morning routine of eating breakfast and catching up the 80 odd blogs that make of my daily reading (about 25-35 are fresh every day). About twenty minutes later, I go back to my Facebook wall to see if someone made anymore comments.

Lo and behold, not only did I find my previous comment nuked, but I also found myself banned from the page. Being banned from a Facebook page simply means that you can still see the page but you can't respond to any comments nor post anything on their wall.

"Fine and ducky" is the G-rated short version of what I said to my computer at 6:30 that morning. The more succinct version was the comment Marcellus Wallace said when he saw Butch at the traffic light. Begins with M and ends with R.

More background: Michael Picozzi is the both the program director and the morning jock who apparently has thinnest skin on the planet. He is at least a decade older than me (I remember listening to this jerk back in the mid-80's, when he used to be a somebody in the local music scene) and is hopelessly out of touch and out of sync with what the people want, and cannot handle any criticism in any way, shape or form.

Anyways, I fired one last shot off at this radio station: I found a link to the radio station website (lots of commercial clutter on the front page) and sent him a polite but pointed e-mail saying that it was pretty lame for banning me from the page for voicing my opinion and that maybe he should step down and let someone who is younger take over and do both his programming and jock job. If he or even his sidekick Miss Klonk responds, I will update this post here and over at Partially Yours.

Note: I did get a response from "him" on 9/2. The reason why "him" is in quotes is that although my e-mail was pointed and personal, the response sounds like a form letter. Judge for yourself, as I'll post my original e-mail in addition to "his" response.

And how was your Hump Day/Prince Spaghetti Day?