Ron and Fez Show on Sirius/XM

My favorite show on satellite radio is the Ron and Fez show. It is on XM 202 and Sirius 197 from noon to 3 pm weekdays. Ron Bennington and Fez Whatley have worked in Tampa, Florida and Washington, DC before coming to New York City. Ron used to be a stand up comedian and he owned a comedy club in Florida. They have many sidekicks and recurring characters on the show such as producers Earl Douglas and David "East Side Dave" McDonald. The show takes a humourous look at what's going on in the world of sports, entertainment, politics, or anything else that is on their minds. Ron is an outstanding interviewer and he hosts an XM show called Unmasked where he talks with comedians about their influences, their style of comedy, and the like. Fez has an odd view of the world and many phobias which he is not afraid to share with listeners. Fez grew up in Florida, and Ron was raised in Philadelphia where he was childhood friends with "Don Vito" Margera from the show Viva La Bam. Above I posted a photo from week 12 of the battle of the beards between Dave and Fez, with Fez on the left.

Broadcast networks may cut back on programming

NBC has been struggling ratings-wise and they may make fewer hours of prime time available to their affiliates.

Jeff Zucker, president/CEO of NBC Universal, speaking at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, said it was a possibility that NBC might consider trimming prime-time hours--or even a whole night of programming.

"Can we continue to broadcast 22 hours in prime time? Three of our competitors don't," he said during Monday's keynote. "Can we continue to broadcast seven days a week? One of our competitors doesn't."

The competitors he is referring to are My Network, the CW and Fox. My Network does not broadcast on Sundays and all 3 of the aforementioned networks have 2 hours of prime instead of 3. On Sundays, the big 3 networks have 4 hours of primetime. I wonder if we may see a merger of networks in the future. Maybe NBC would merge with CBS, or ABC would merge with Fox? In these tough economic times, merging companies seems to be all the rage. Many cities that used to have 2 newspapers have merged so they have one. The UPN network and WB network merged to form the CW.

NBC has only one soap opera, and that genre has been losing viewers steadily. According to TV Guide, in the past 10 years, daytime soap ratings have fallen as much as 50% for some shows. The top rated soap is CBS' The Young and the Restless and in the past 10 years its ratings have fallen from 7.9 million viewers to 4.9 million. NBC's Days of Our Lives took a steep fall, going from 5.4 million to 2.6 million. Guiding Light on CBS has fallen from 4.5 million to 2.1 million viewers. Longtime soap stars like Susan Lucci and Anthony Geary have had to take pay cuts. NBC fired its most popular soap stars, Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn, and the remaining cast has to take a pay cut of 40%.

Leno will stay at NBC

People have been wondering what will happen next year when Jay Leno leaves The Tonight Show. Conan O'Brien will move to 11:35 pm to follow in the footsteps of Jay Leno, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar and Steve Allen. Former SNL star Jimmy Fallon will take over the 12:35 am slot on NBC, which was previously occupied by Conan O'Brien, who replaced David Letterman in 1993. The associated press, The New York Times and msn.com are reporting that Leno will stay with NBC to host a show which will air at 10 pm weeknights. There were rumors about Leno pursuing a late night deal with ABC, or Fox, or a syndicated show. This will be a cost saving measure for the peacock network since talk shows are cheaper to produce than the dramas that often air in the 10 pm time slot. Leno will be able to reach a larger audience at 10 pm as opposed to 11:35 pm. NBC has been struggling compared to the other broadcast networks in terms of ratings. CBS is number one, largely due to their popular crime dramas such as their 3 versions of CSI, Without a Trace, Cold Case, NCIS, Criminal Minds, and the like. Fox has American Idol to bring in the big numbers, and ABC has Dancing with the Stars. The last episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno will be May 29, and Conan's first episode will be June 1. I am looking forward to it, and I think that Conan will have more success than Leno since he is funnier and better at interviews. Also, Conan is not someone who "plays it safe" as Leno does. I have never been impressed with Leno's watered down style of comedy, and I'd like to see someone with more of an edge at the helm of that show.

Southern Rock: It's More Than Just Skynyrd

Around the mid-1990s, I became interested in country music. The first artists I enjoyed were Alan Jackson, Sammy Kershaw and Garth Brooks. Then I heard something a bit different in the music of Travis Tritt. It was country, but with more of a rock/blues style. Travis always starts his shows with the song "Put Some Drive in Your Country". In the song he talks of his influences, ranging from country classics like Roy Acuff and George Jones, to artists like Hank Williams Jr. and Waylon Jennings. My favorite line of the song says..."Well I made myself a promise, when I was just a kid, I'd mix southern rock and country, and that's just what I did". Another line says "Man I miss Duane Allman, I wish he was still around". (Sometimes in concert he substitutes the names Stevie Ray Vaughan or Waylon Jennings). So it got me thinking, who is Duane Allman and what is southern rock all about? I idolized Travis so much that I figured if he likes it, it must be some good stuff. I had heard of Lynyrd Skynyrd but did not know much about them or their genre of music. Much of southern rock originated in Florida and the most prominent bands peaked in the 1970s. So, here are some of my favorite southern rock bands with some of their best known songs listed.

Lynyrd Skynyrd---Freebird, Sweet Home Alabama, Gimmee Three Steps
Allman Brothers Band---Ramblin' Man, Melissa, Statesboro Blues
Marshall Tucker Band---Can't You See, Heard it in a Love Song
Molly Hatchett---Flirtin' with Disaster
Charlie Daniels Band---Devil Went Down to Georgia, The South's Gonna do it Again
.38 Special---Hold on Loosely
Stevie Ray Vaughan---Pride and Joy, Taxman (Some may consider him a blues artist, but there are southern rock influences in his music).

Prominent Bands in the Genre of Ska Music

During the mid to late 1990s, ska music had a resurgence, and I have been hooked ever since. The genre originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s. It is distinctive music, which is made up of a mixture of calypso/reggae, jazz, and rhythm and blues. I like the fact that ska bands have horns, usually consisting of a trumpet, trombone and saxophone player. There are three periods of ska music, starting with the Jamaican music, then the 2 tone period in England in the late 1970s, and the 3rd wave starting in the 1980s. The most well known band in the 2 tone period was Madness, which had an international hit in 1982 with Our House. The most visible ska band during the 3rd wave had to be No Doubt. Their 1995 Tragic Kingdom album was a smash hit and their success led to countless other bands springing up. Gwen Stefani has done well as a solo artist, and the band No Doubt has changed their sound from a decade ago. They are scheduled to release a new album in 2009. Like No Doubt, Mighty Mighty Bosstones formed in the mid 1980s but did not have wide commercial success until a decade later. In 1997 their release, Let's Face It, contained the single The Impression That I Get, which rose to number one on the Billboard charts. Since 2000 the Bosstones have not had as much commercial success and the members have moved on to other projects. Lead singer Dicky Barrett has worked in LA radio and as an announcer for the Jimmy Kimmel show. The band has not broken up and they still tour occassionally, primarily in New England, where they are more prominent than other parts of the country.

Other third wave ska band that I enjoy include;
The Aquabats
The Insyderz (Christian ska band)
Less Than Jake
Let's Go Bowling
The OC Supertones
Reel Big Fish (great band with a wacky sense of humor)
Save Ferris (they did a remake of Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners)
The Toasters (check out their song 2 Tone Army)

*Some source information from en.wikipedia.org