Another March, another talk radio convention.
Operative word: tired. Flew from Long Beach to Dulles, and, for once, everything went smoothly- no traffic to airport, plenty of parking, fast check-in, fast security check, plane left on time, flight landed slightly early, got off plane fast, caught shuttle to terminal by 10 seconds, bags came out very fast, got cab immediately, no traffic to hotel, checked in immediately. I haven't had a smooth trip like that in years. Nearly perfect.
Nearly, that is, because when I plugged into the hotel broadband, it didn't work, necessitating two calls to tech support before they fixed the problem. But I was prety worn out and hungry, so I went to the Hell CVS (the one in Chinatown where you get aggressive panhandlers hitting you up for cash IN the store and cursing you out if you decline) for some "room food" and bottles of water and grabbed a burger and fries from the Five Guys around the corner (memo to self: next time you hit Five Guys, remember NOT to get the large fries, because "large" there means "more fries than any human being can possibly be expected to eat in a week"). Decided to skip the Wizards game- just three blocks away (a block from the CVS) but just too much trouble for me tonight. Got some work done, then felt guilty and went down to the gym to work out while watching the insane Duke-FSU game (Stephanie Miller and her sidekick/voice guy Jim Ward came in to work out, thus mortifying me, since I was dripping sweat and looking, er, not so fresh and definitely not wanting to be seen. Hi, guys! Pardon the smell!). And now I'm here, mopping up the work for the evening.
As I've made abundantly clear in the past, I dread conventions, and talk radio conventions like this one are especially uncomfortable because it's more of a White Guys In Suits deal than some of the others. The NAB Vegas show has lots of techies in jeans, the Fall radio show has more PDs, but this one is a celebration of Ye Olde Tyme Talk Radio, the kind with said White Guys in Suits bloviating on the port deal and federal policy and all that stuff they talk about on Ye Olde Tyme Talk Radio, even when the host isn't particularly Olde. I'm sure there'll be a lot of talk about how the miserable month for Free FM bodes poorly for "FM Talk," because there won't be too many of us FM Talk types here, but just because someone's doing a very poor execution of the format doesn't mean the format won't work. It does and it has, and as one of the people to blame for the format, I know how to make it work. But nobody's asking me (and, more critically, paying me for the information), so I'll keep it to myself. Suffice to say that this kind of convention celebrates the kind of talk radio that gets a 1 share. And there's always a lot of Inside the Beltway talk, because they assume that everyone's just enamored with the workings of the federal government and gossip from Capitol Hill.
Not me. I'm here because I gotta be. I gotta represent my company, show my face, get the word out. And see some good friends who invariably show up. And drink beer and trade gossip about radio people and visit my friends in Virginia.
Okay, it's not all bad.
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