Media Watch

I always threatened to cancel my cable TV subscription, but when my bill jumped from $78 to $140 a month, it was suddenly a lot easier to return the gear to Mediacom and end the relationship. What I had not fully realized was that 95% of what I watch is free.  In fact, all the top shows are in fact broadcast OTA (over-the-air).  What am I missing?  I can't watch Mad Men and The Daily Show at their initial air times anymore, but for $9 (Netflix) I can catch up on almost any cable show, like Mad Men, and there's a free app for The Daily Show. For the sake of full disclosure, I had to replace the Internet connection my cable company provided as a part of their $140 package.  I found a company that provides DSL for $45/mo.  And I still have my Tivo DVR, so that's another $129/yr ($10.75/mo).  I can drop that (see below) and still enjoy all my shows.  Finally, my phone bill is $45 a month.  I'm keeping that. What you need to cut the cable: $35 TV antenna (and the

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad announced today that he's backing Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) for the Presidency. It's pretty late in the race to be choosing horses, and this particular stallion has some issues from a previous run. Romney showed us there's nothing he wouldn't lie about.  So the question is whether it hurt Branstad to back the better of the evils, when in fact the lesser man is evil. Let me take you back to august of 2007 when the former governor of Massachusetts appeared on a radio show while stumping in Des Moines during his ask-me-anything tour. Several minutes into a filler segment, the talk show host abruptly shifted gears, noting that Romney was walking into the studio. "Good morning, sir, welcome aboard," Jan Mickelson said.  But the niceties didn't last. After a significant kerfuffle on and off the air, Mickelson said, "I hope we can do this when we can spend some quality time on the air."  "No, I get a little tir

I've lived in Iowa all my life and I owe it to the agriculture community a measure of gratitude for sustaining an economy here so that I can be gainfully employed my entire adult life.  But should that mean I can't speak openly about the elephant in the room? Would I be a bad Iowan if I was critical of its producers?  Listen to any politician or company or industry communication director and you're going to hear some one-sided dialog.  But as an ordinary resident, that's not my job. As an individual I have a right to take the available information and assess it with as much critical thinking as I can muster on a given day and form an opinion about it.  Unfortunately it's well known that the industries see their jobs as managing public perception through spin in the name of sustaining our economy here. As a lifelong Iowan, I've long known you don't ask what's in a hot dog.  I've long known that hamburger consists of about the lowest grade meat i

This has been circulating for a while and I enjoy seeing it every time it rolls back to me. The Dog's Diary 8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing! 9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing! 9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing! 10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing! 12:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing! 1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing! 3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing! 5:00 pm - Dinner! My favorite thing! 7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing! 8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing! 11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing! The Cat's Diary Day 983 of My Captivity My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The

This is my thirtieth year in radio and I'm still inspired by the spirit of the business, with all of its varied aspects.  There are layers stacked on entertainment, journalism, community service, marketing and a camaraderie that has always spoken to me.  It touches people and binds us to those in other worlds and about town. There's also a moving timeline that is intriguing and exciting.  There's a rich history that creates this aura of heritage, yet it's full of people always working to enhance and polish the processes that make the sound come out of the speakers and the words ever-relevant. I'm not a purist.  I think that's too limiting for such an evolving medium.  I love new ideas and exploring ways to change up my craft.  Besides, pure is relative to an individual and the period of his entry into the business. The earliest broadcasts were always live, as there was no means to record them.  Later, programming was produced using test acetate (lacquer-co

I keep hearing that Iowa needs to pass legislation that prevents voter fraud.  And the proponents of the measure use language that appeals to the sensibilities of regular people, saying, "If you need an ID to (insert any common activity), then why not require ID to make sure elections are fair?" And that's when my ears perk up.  That sure has the ring of demagoguery, the same rhetoric used in every debate on nearly any polarizing issues where someone has a thinly veiled agenda. I must ask if this insistence on requiring government identification at the polling place is based on actual voter fraud problems or does this amount to statistical wizardry crafted by some organized elite faction to sway outcomes to their preferred side. Voting is a fundamental right in our republic and it should not be a difficult undertaking for citizens to exercise. True, government and businesses are pushing harder to ask us to prove our identity at every turn, but the reasons for that

I've suggested divisive infighting has been a useful distraction that enables corporatism.  Much evidence of that in social conversations I read on facebook. There's plenty of common ground among the wage earners, but folks in the cheap seats are paired into political and social subsets, provoked to attack each other instead of directing their energy at restraining Washington. We're the useful idiots perpetuating the crime by doing...nothing but bickering and name-calling. The political parties have become bastardized versions of their former selves, directed by operatives who have but one common interest: to suck from the enormous teet of the federal government. OWS and Teaparty movements are symptomatic of common unrest by the populous, yet the perception is sold to us that their forces oppose one another. Seeing a thread here? We're never allowed to forget the fights. The black/white issue keeps popping up in the media. But ask yourself who is advancing