Larry King, 8/13/07

[Gus]

Tonight's Larry King program is in rememberance of Merv Griffin. I just now caught the plug on Hedline News, and they rattled off a bunch of names that would be on; Alex Trebek was the one that caught my ear, and the show's webspace also lists "Nancy Reagan, Joan Rivers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, ... Tony Griffin and more." <plug>It's on at 9:00 Eastern.</plug>

[Jimmy_1]

I saw a small portion Larry King's tribute show for Merv.  Governor Arnold was respectful, and Vanna talked politely.  Both seemed rather sedate, unlike the more bubbly remembrances I have seen King do for Steve Allen or Bob Hope (Admittedly, more time had passed between the death and the panelists' appearances.)  One point was rather unsettling.  Larry King pressed Griffin's son for details of the death scene.  Larry King kept asking "Did Merv know he was going to die?"  "When did he know he was going to die?"  "Were you there with him when he died?"  The son started going into detail about a tube in Merv's mouth.  After a few sentences detailing the intravenous feeding, the son was breaking down, trying to hold back the tears.  King took, IMHO, an extraordinarily long amount of time to change the subject.  This wasn't a political figure or a sensationalistic segment (where the close-up for tears or anger is expected), so I wonder why they let the death details go on longas they did.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'Jimmy_1\' post=\'160631\' date=\'Aug 14 2007, 08:06 PM\']
One point was rather unsettling.  Larry King pressed Griffin's son for details of the death scene.  Larry King kept asking "Did Merv know he was going to die?"  "When did he know he was going to die?"  "Were you there with him when he died?"  The son started going into detail about a tube in Merv's mouth.  After a few sentences detailing the intravenous feeding, the son was breaking down, trying to hold back the tears.  [/quote]
King probably could have handled that better, but I thought it was a pretty classy gesture of Trebek to put his hand on Tony's back during King's line of questioning (almost holding him steady the way a father would a child).

Meanwhile, someone needs to put Joan Rivers out of our, ahem, I mean, her misery.  Wow.

/2900.  Double wow.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'Jimmy_1\' post=\'160631\' date=\'Aug 14 2007, 09:06 PM\']
This wasn't a political figure or a sensationalistic segment (where the close-up for tears or anger is expected), so I wonder why they let the death details go on longas they did.
[/quote]
Because he's Larry King, master of sensationalism.

Between him and People Magazine with its constant parade of death (or a cover image of Princess Diana wherever applicable), they've got the death marketing pretty much down pat.

[ChuckNet]

Missed it...any chance they'll rerun it over the wknd?

Chuck Dobnegan (The Curious "Chuckie Baby")

[cmjb13]

One thing I didn't like (or didn't understand) about Larry was probably a year after 9/11. Out of the blue, and he did this several times to various celebrities, his first question was "Where were you on 9/11?" I just seemed so out of place, especially doing it several times.

And listening to Opie & Anthony this week they played a clip several years ago with Larry introducing "The Motley Crue" (they believed he added "the" because most musical groups of his era had "the" in the title)

[Chelsea Thrasher]

[quote name=\'cmjb13\' post=\'160743\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 04:33 PM\']  (they believed he added "the" because most musical groups of his era had "the" in the title) [/quote]

I beg to differ.  Methuselah and Garfunkel?

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'cmjb13\' post=\'160743\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 05:33 PM\']
And listening to Opie & Anthony this week they played a clip several years ago with Larry introducing "The Motley Crue" (they believed he added "the" because most musical groups of his era had "the" in the title)
[/quote]
Years ago, I worked with a disc jockey who insisted on putting the word "the" in song titles where it didn't belong. One time he talked up a song by Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey, "The (sic) Easy Lover". And he did this a lot.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'160802\' date=\'Aug 16 2007, 05:30 AM\']
Years ago, I worked with a disc jockey who insisted on putting the word "the" in song titles where it didn't belong. One time he talked up a song by Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey, "The (sic) Easy Lover". And he did this a lot.
[/quote]
While I'm certainly not surprised, the fact that he was around long enough to do this "a lot" should tell you folks who haven't done radio a LOT about the industry. In my experience, pretty much EVERY station has one of these guys.

(That said, I suppose any industry has idiots who have no business breathing air, much less having a job.)

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'160822\' date=\'Aug 16 2007, 10:36 AM\']
[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'160802\' date=\'Aug 16 2007, 05:30 AM\']
Years ago, I worked with a disc jockey who insisted on putting the word "the" in song titles where it didn't belong. One time he talked up a song by Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey, "The (sic) Easy Lover". And he did this a lot.
[/quote]
While I'm certainly not surprised, the fact that he was around long enough to do this "a lot" should tell you folks who haven't done radio a LOT about the industry. In my experience, pretty much EVERY station has one of these guys.

(That said, I suppose any industry has idiots who have no business breathing air, much less having a job.)
[/quote]

Back at the end of the 70s, a guy who had worked at a country station in Chicago for years and years got a job at a suburban hot AC.  The one time I heard him on that station, he backsold "The Chic and 'The Freak.'"

The "the" thing seemed to be chronic with the old school MOR/full service jocks who all of a sudden had to play this soft rock music in the 70s--you heard "The America" and "The Firefall" all the time.

[BrandonFG]

Heh...reminds me of when I read newspaper articles about "The Family Guy". Happens more often than you think.

[sshuffield70]

Heh, there's one guy at a local station who will tell you some song from some artist is the latest......even if it was from two years ago......and he's had hits since then.

[chris319]

Hmmm, whether to stay at The YMCA or The Hotel California? While thinking about it I'll do The Hustle.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'160842\' date=\'Aug 16 2007, 11:39 AM\']
While thinking about it I'll do The Hustle.
[/quote]
The Hustle's actually correct, though...

/there is no shame, only points...

[Adam Nedeff]

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'160802\' date=\'Aug 16 2007, 07:30 AM\']
Years ago, I worked with a disc jockey who insisted on putting the word "the" in song titles where it didn't belong. One time he talked up a song by Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey, "The (sic) Easy Lover". And he did this a lot.
[/quote]

When I was still in WV, I worked with a very incompotent programming director for a classic rock station who was adament that the titles she had in the automation system were correct and everybody else was wrong. Her defining moment was when one of the other board operators recruited each employee, one at a time, to walk up to her and tell her the correct Lynard Skynard title was "Gimme Back My Bullets" (plural) and not "Gimme Back My Bullet" (singular as she had entered it). She refused to change it because she was clearly the only one there who knew the correct title.

As the other board-op and I were laughing about this in the studio one night, we glanced at the playlist showing the next ten songs being played that night. The last song of the bunch was "Mississippi Quinn."