This story is gonna ramble a little – don’t they all? – but I almost skipped the Ed Block Courage Awards dinner earlier tonight. I wasn’t in the mood to go, I’ve had some long days of work lately and I just didn’t feel much like being in the room with a thousand people and dealing with angry mobs of PETA people and, quite frankly, I just wasn’t in the mood for the hassle.

Earlier in the day one of my oldest friends from Dundalk, Frank Vanik, sent me a series of emails saying that he needed tickets to the Ed Block event. Honestly, I didn’t have any tickets for the event and I sent him back a series of emails all day from a variety of meetings. Frank said it was his birthday and he wanted to be at the banquet. And I felt like a tremendous heel because I really didn’t have the tickets, time or ability to help him at the last minute on a heavy workload day. And I knew my friend Sam Lamantia and his staff would be in complete overwhelm and all fearing the worst P.R. from the Michael Vick dog-gate that was unfolding in the driveway of Martin’s West.

But here’s the catch: Frank is in a very, very advanced stage of battling Multiple Sclerosis – a 20-plus year battle that has left his mind 1000% fine to read my blogs every day and listen to WNST AM-1570 – but his body has quit on him and he usually lays very limp in a 600-pound wheelchair that his mom Gert is usually pushing to some event. For many of you who have been to our events, Frank is no stranger. He’s come to WNST events for years – almost always “surprises” me when his family shows up in a giant truck that it takes to transport him everywhere he goes. I’ve taken him out to the Ravens facility to meet Ray Lewis, Brian Billick, Steve McNair, Jon Ogden and many others. One time he came to an event and we couldn’t get him to the second floor because the chair just wouldn’t make it. Frank is one of the biggest sports fans I know and his disabilities are quickly becoming nullified with the connectivity of the internet.

He’s on Facebook. He communicates. You can almost hear him laugh electronically. He wants to write a blog at WNST.net.

Frank also has pictures all over his house of his life accomplishments. Frank has scuba dived. Frank went skydiving two years ago strapped onto another person. Frank has been the Dundalk Man of the Year. I visited Frank almost 10 years ago in a hospital and thought he was going to die.

Frank Vanik, who I met as a 7th grade classmate in 1979 at Holabird Middle School, is unquestionably the most “courageous” person I’ve ever known in my 42 years on the planet. Honestly, I can’t even begin to think of who would be a close second for me.

His family. His caregivers. His friends. Everyone rallies around Frank and if you could catch a drift of his sense of humor, you’d know why.

Frank graduated from my Dundalk High Class of 1985 with a perfect score on the math side of the S.A.T. No, I’m not making that up – he had an EIGHT HUNDRED on the hardest test of them all!

And while I was running off to The News American and The Sun with a pregnant girlfriend and then a small child, he went off to Blacksburg and Virginia Tech and got a degree in Mechanical Engineering. That year he was stricken with M.S. and since then my many DHS classmates and I have watched his body deteriorate and decay with this insidious disease that more and more people in my life have been affected by recently. My sister-in-law was diagnosed last year and it scares he hell out of me and my wife and her family.

So, Frank, with Michael Vick in town really wanted to be at the Ed Block Awards to support Michael Vick. (And no, I still haven’t asked Frank how he feels about Vick’s dogs, jail time, the Courage Awards, etc.)

Last night, I dragged myself out to the event at the last minute. I missed Vick’s press conference (one that I didn’t even know was happening) and I headed to the ballroom and ran into a variety of friends, old football players and even did some cool videos for wnsTV with E.J. Henderson, Shawne Merriman and Dawan Landry.

At the edge of the ballroom – an hour into my night — I caught Frank and his giant wheelchair and the sea of orange out of the corner of my eye. He was wearing a Virginia Tech suit and a had a Hokies blanket draped on him to keep him warm. (His condition constantly makes him cold.)

During the opening of the event – all designed to shed light and raise funds for the plight of abused and underprivileged kids throughout NFL cities – I heard the word “courage” while I was chatting with Frank and thought about HIS courage. And I remembered it was his birthday.

And, well, I know some folks with the Ed Block Foundation after raising money for so many years on their behalf and being a Community Leader award winner several years ago.

So, I grabbed a few of the security personnel and Paul Lamantia, Sam’s son (who is completely responsible for my hair – for better or worse – and was also the guitar player in our band, Ridgemont High, a number of years ago) and told them the story about Frank.

Ten minutes later, Frank was being wheeled into a private area and Michael Vick was jumping off the dais to come and say hello. I’m assuming Sam Lamantia got the word about Frank and wanted to do a good deed in the name of courage.

Here’s how it went down…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Vick signed a picture for Frank, chatted for a little while when I turned the camera off and last I checked was taking pictures with people outside of the bathroom at Martin’s West.

I pass no judgment. But I have a feeling you will…

I just thought I’d pass along that Michael Vick made a special friend of mine very, very happy tonight. And he couldn’t have been any more gracious or sincere or kind. And there was nothing “orchestrated” about any of this. It literally happened on the fly. Every Ed Block worker said Vick was “a gem – a prince” to work with over the past two days.

It doesn’t diminish any of the past crimes and misdemeanors, but I feel better about Michael Vick today than I did yesterday. And really, isn’t that all he can do at this point? Every day Vick has to get out of bed with a gigantic bulls eye on his back and people watching his every move. And last night, he made a very nice gesture and I’m not even sure anyone with the Ed Block folks even told him where he was going when he got off of the dais.

I also entered Martin’s West last night and Tweeted up a variety of pictures of the Vick/P.E.T.A protesters, who were out in force but weren’t a factor inside the facility, which was surrounded by Baltimore County police. (I can only imagine how much it cost the citizens of Baltimore County to surround Martin’s West with cops for a guy from out of town who was trying to take the right path and was being honored by his teammates, who thought he deserved an award for “courage.”)

To be honest, Vick IS a courageous guy since last night was turned into a circus on his behalf and he’ll be dealing with this for a long, long time, apparently. He’s got a lot of courage for showing up and trying to the change the way he lived his life.

The “Golden Boy” Tom Brady didn’t even care to show up to claim his award. Marlin Jackson was here in Owings Mills trying to get a job yesterday afternoon and couldn’t stay a few hours and go five miles away to claim his award.

But not Vick. He came. Took the heat. Shined amidst the madness. And left most of the Ed Block people with a great impression. It would have been FAR easier for him — and for the Ed Block folks — if he indeed stayed home.

But he came and represented his team, his name and the league on a night designed to raise money for abused and neglected children.

Isn’t that the definition of courage, in some way?

Who knows? Maybe some of those PETA folks will realize Michael Vick might be able to do them more good than harm, moving forward.

Tony Dungy gave him a chance. The Eagles gave him a chance. Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb gave him a chance. Roger Goodell gave him a chance.

So far so good for Vick but the poor Ed Block people had their event tarnished to some degree tonight and the crowd was way off at Martin’s West.

I just thought I’d tell you (and show you) a nice story involving Michael Vick.

And I’m sure you’ll go on thinking whatever you care to think…

And you’re welcomed to write those missives below…

Happy 91st birthday!!! I know you might be used to me doing the radio show dedicated to you every year here on March 5^th but this year I’m “off” the radio (the listeners call it “retirement” and I call it “sabbatical”) so I’m just gonna write you this letter and hope it gets to you. And instead of taking calls all afternoon, I’m gonna take comments from folks on this space-aged thing called the internet. (I’ll explain it to you later but there’s a lot of stuff in the world here in 2010 you wouldn’t really understand without seeing it!)

A lot has changed since you left us back in July 1992 and I just thought I’d check in and update you a little with this letter – just kind of catch you up a little bit because every single day I think “What would Pop think of this crazy place now?”

And I know how much you love to read, so I thought I’d put it in writing for your birthday – how much different this place is in 2010!

Yes, I still write “for the paper” occasionally, but they just don’t call it a newspaper anymore. The words kinda live on a little television set and you don’t have to print them. You just “click” and you can get almost any information in the world. It’s kinda like the radio, TV and newspaper worlds have all gone into one place, if you can understand that. It’s called the “internet” – and really, I’d probably have a helluva time trying to make you understand it but I’m gonna try.

These days I’m so freaking busy building this sports media business I’ve created that I don’t even get to write about sports or talk about sports as much as I’d like but I’ll be doing more this baseball season for you and keep you in the loop on the Orioles and stuff. I’m also doing a book that I’m gonna send you a copy of later this year. It’s about coaching and leadership – I think you’ll dig it because it’s a lot of the stuff that you were always trying to teach me only put into words and kinda organized with words of wisdom from all of the coaches that I’ve met since 1984 who’ve taught me about life through sports.

Pop, a LOT of these people really helped make me the person I am since you’ve been gone. You remember Gene Ubriaco from the Skipjacks? Well he kinda gave me the idea since he was the first coach I talked to back in the day and he visited me recently and inspired me. I remember introducing him to you back at the Civic Center when I first covered the team for The News American.

Anyway, I remember that summer back in 1986 when we coached that Little League baseball team at Eastwood together. (One of those kids is now my Facebook friend, but I’ll save explaining that for next year’s letter, OK?)

I think a lot about you managing the 1973 Colgate Pirates, when I was the batboy, and we won the championship. I’m gonna write a little bit about it in the book. Gus Kaplanges still calls me and I ran into Teddy Boccia at Pizza John’s in Essex a few weeks ago. Tom Duni always sends along his best when I see him on the mornings when I take Mom to the IHOP over on Merritt Boulevard. It’s the “International House of Pancakes” – right in Dundalk. I know how much you love pancakes. They even have all of the fancy syrups!

So when I heard they just got email up there where you are I thought I’d send you a birthday card with some updates here from Planet Earth instead of doing the radio show. (Wait’ll you get a load of these “smart” phones when they get there with the “internet” on them. And wait’ll you see this thing called “texting”!)

Look, some of this stuff you’re not gonna understand. You’re just not, no matter what I do or how I try to explain it. Lemme just start with this – we have a black President of the United States, so you KNOW things are little different but the changes these last 18 or so years have been incredible – especially the last few years. You wouldn’t believe what’s happened in Baltimore with sports media and sports in general.

You were right about ESPN – they’re still around and they have a monopoly on virtually every sport and they have this 24-hour a day newspaper that people read all the time. You can even listen to the radio and watch videos on a screen without an antenna! (It’s all on that “internet” thing I told you about. And it’s all in the palm of your hand on this thing that’s like a phone. I’d try to compare it to a “cell” phone but even that would be hard.)

You know me, I still love hockey and the NHL is fun. The Capitals are really good and I think you’d even get on this bandwagon, even though you always hated hockey and Washington, D.C. The Caps have this Russian kid named Ovechkin – he’s like Gretzky, only bigger and meaner. It’s a fun time and the Caps SUCKED big time for a long time, kinda like they did when back when I started dragging you down there to the Capital Centre in 1981. I’m really sorry you never liked hockey, but I really do appreciate you taking me down to those Clippers games back in the day! You have no idea how great those memories are for me and how much hockey still means to me!

The Terps are having a great year – they even won a BIG one against Duke the other night and they play in this shiny new building and Gary Williams is STILL the coach! They finally won the National Championship back in 2002 and it was a lot of fun. I know how much you loved March Madness around the house and it’s still pretty much the same although they wear these long pants these days. And people don’t play bracket pools on paper – they do it on this “internet” thing!

The NBA kinda sucks these days and nobody watches. I know you saw Abe Pollin up there a few weeks ago. I hope you guys made up – he really did do some good things, though that would be hard for me to explain to you. The new guy here who owns the old Bullets (they call them the “Wizards” now — again, don’t ask…really some of this s&%t is too crazy to even try to explain!) is a guy named Ted Leonsis. Good dude and now he owns the Caps. I know him a little through the radio show. They moved outta the Capital Centre into downtown D.C. back in 1998 and they play in this place that kinda looks like a mall with windows. It’s wild, man, the way the stadiums and the arenas have changed. It’s all about business now with sports – lots of money, but still a lot of fun most of the time. And people love it more than ever!

But there’s even these new sports like this “mixed martial arts” — where guys literally beat the s&*t outta each other like something in one of those weekend Roman gladiator movies on Channel 45. It’s crazy. It’s like boxing, kinda, without gloves. It’s kinda like WWF only it’s REAL. Swear to God! But people love it!

Oh, about “rassling,” one of your favorites. It’s now called World Wrestling “ENTERTAINMENT” these days. Vince McMahon is still running it and making money but they’ve admitted what you said along: “It’s fake.” But nobody seems to mind and they still sell a lot of tickets.

Stock car racing (they just call it NASCAR these days) is this HUGE thing – these fancy cars, crowds of over 100,000 and big TV ratings. They moved the Olympics into every two years – summer and winter alternate – and they have these skateboard kids who surf on the snow getting medals. It’s exciting – you might even like it!

The Preakness is a mess. They took the beer away last year and now nobody goes but no one here seems to care too much about horse racing. Kinda sad. I know you never liked it too much but it’s tough to see it die like this, especially in May when Baltimore used to rock for the Preakness. They’re doing this new thing this year – “Get Your Preak On” – we’ll see how it goes.

I know I haven’t mentioned the Orioles because, well, you really don’t want to know. I know when you left us back in July of ’92 you were sorta losing it a little for life and sports and I know you thought Camden Yards looked nice on TV. Sorry I never took you down there before you left but honestly you haven’t really missed much down there, Pop.

This guy from Highlandtown named Peter Angelos bought the team about a year after you left us. Hotshot lawyer, got involved with some union guys who died from asbestos and made a zillion dollars, bought the team in 1994 and, well, they’ve turned into the worst franchise in sports.

They lose every year. They lie every year. They’re really rather disgraceful! And nobody goes to the games anymore. Mom still watches – we all kinda do – but no one goes to the games and the owner is the biggest heel since Bob Irsay.

Pop, some people hate him even MORE than Irsay and I’m not kidding!

I know it sounds crazy, but he’s kinda at war with me personally because I have had the balls and the voice to do what you’d have done if you were me – I tell the truth about the losing and the sad state of the city on summer night. But you’d dig it that some of the old Orioles from when we were taking the No. 22 outta Highlandtown are still around and are really cool to me. Those old Orioles come up to me and tell me to continue to fight with him but, really, Pop, it’s not the same and I’m tired of fighting with these lunatics.

I don’t even wanna bore you with it. (I’d tell you to “Google it” but you’d have no idea what the hell that means but I think you’d really think it’s cool. Imagine one of those World Book encyclopedias you bought me combined with every library in the world and all available in one place and you’ll begin to grasp it. Yeah, I know, you’re a little confused…so is Mom, don’t worry.)

But more than ANYONE, you’d be the proudest of how I’ve stood up and fought for what’s right. I take a lot of heat. People write me hate mail, threaten my life on occasion – but I know I’m right. This Angelos guy can’t even get along with Brooks Robinson, who’s still alive and has battled some illnesses recently.

This spring, I’m going to get behind a big civic movement to get a statue built for No. 5. I’ve sorta gotten to know Brooks since you left us and he’s just as great of a guy as you always thought he was and he deserves it. So I’m gonna help these guys who want to do this and I want to do it in your honor, if you’ll let me. I always tell Brooks about how you took me to “Thanks, Brooks Day” way back in 1977 and how we spent the day together out in left field like we always did in those days on 33^rd Street.

By the way – I’ve got some more bad news. They tore down Memorial Stadium about 10 years ago. It really PISSED me off. I drive by there, think of you and get all pissed off again. I can’t even turn the corner up by Lake Montebello without getting depressed. The old site was turned into a YMCA. You’d hate it — trust me! Some days, I think you’re better off where you are and I can’t wait to join you!

I’m writing you this letter from a plane tonight and I’m going to spring training – but it’s not Florida, it’s Arizona. I’m doing some research work on this book on coaching and leadership. I’m going to be interviewing over 100 coaches with Baltimore ties and writing about their feelings on life, leadership and sports. I’m in Arizona and because the Orioles don’t let me come to their spring training games (or any games, really) because I did this protest of their ownership back in 2006. I had a press pass for all those years after you left but they took my pass away for telling the truth. I know, it’s kinda what you’d expect in Cuba or Russia, but that’s the way it is these days in America when you tell the truth – people hate you, abuse you and fail to be accountable. Especially when they’re rich and they threaten people with lawsuits every day. It’s a sick world. The more I know, the less I want to know about a lot of this stuff.

But that’s OK. I’m happy standing for what’s right and not falling for anything. Like I said, I know you’d be proud of me!

So anyway, I’m on this flight to Phoenix and I’m writing to you (we do it on these fancy computers that are kinda like typewriters that sit on your lap) and there’s a guy from the Ravens sitting behind me. His name is Justin Green – he’s a running back who used to play on the NFL team we have now in Baltimore.

I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you about the Ravens. But I wanted to save the good news for the end!

The Ravens are our new NFL team!

I know, I know. You said we’d NEVER get another NFL team but we did. It was something like a miracle, Pop, this team that Art Modell brought to Baltimore from Cleveland back in 1996. No, the Browns colors and logos stayed in Cleveland where they replaced the team but those people are STILL pissed, kinda like you were with Irsay until you left us.

(I’m assuming if you’ve ever run into Irsay up there you’re in the WRONG place…so I’ll just tell you that he died a few years ago!)

But Modell was great for Baltimore! He even hired Ted Marchibroda to be the first coach! It’s been a LOT of fun since this football team came to town.

We have a young local owner named Steve Bisciotti, who does his best to not be the jerk that Angelos is and Irsay was. He’s interested in winning and making the team fun every year and Baltimore appreciates that!

The Ravens have the best defensive player I’ve ever seen – a guy like Butkus and Curtis and Singletary but only better! His name is Ray Lewis and he’s fun to watch. He was a rookie on the first team back in 1996 and he’s still playing but the Ravens have really had a lot of good players and they win most years and the games are fun and it kinda reminds everyone here of those fun days you had with the Colts back in the ’50s and ’60s with Mom and Johnny Unitas. (I hope you said hi to No. 19 when he dropped by a few years ago. He stood on the sidelines here for the Ravens on game days and people thought it was cool! I talked to him a few days before he came to be with you…)

I miss you the most on those Ravens game days in the fall because you’d LOVE this football team. They wear purple, your favorite color. The band still plays, they’re just called “The Ravens Marching Band.” People come to the games really early and have picnics and drink beer. They call it “tailgating” because they sit on the trunk of the car and dine on swine and wait for the game and play catch. We’ve got this new stadium down where the railroad tracks used to be on the other side of the harbor, right next to the baseball stadium. It’s wild driving into downtown now and seeing those giant stadiums and all of the purple.

But I really miss you on those days when the team plays. I think of you every Sunday. I really do!

Because of what I do for work, I even get to go to all of the road games and sometimes we even take people who listen to the radio station and read my columns (we call ‘em “blogs” now) on the internet with us and it makes it more fun. Beer drinking, good food, football cheers – Pop, you’d LOVE it!

So, even though I did the radio show for a long time, I’m still here doing my media thing on this “internet” contraption and some of the people haven’t really changed. You remember Tom Davis and Scott Garceau – they work for my competitor. Stan The Fan still does this magazine every month. And Phil Jackman is still my friend and he’s gotten even older and even crankier. It’s fun to watch!

But I turned the old radio station into this 24-hour-a-day “internet” sports place with radio, television and news all in one place. We even have all of the box scores and standings for you! I wish you could see it!!! It’s like the Sporting News back in the day only even more in depth. You’d be really proud, Pop!

I have these awesome business partners – led by a guy named Brian Billick. He was the Ravens coach back when they won the Super Bowl in 2001. (I’ll tell you more about that later!)

Billick is sorta like Earl Weaver was to the Orioles – only taller, but he does cuss just as much! I’d pay a lot of money to see you and Billick have a conversation about sports. You’d make him laugh for sure!

Billick is just a fabulous guy and I really wish you two would’ve gotten a chance to meet. He joined me about 18 months ago as a business partner but all of the money we ever make on his behalf goes directly back to the community through this charity called “Living Classrooms” which helps the kids in the city who are trying to stay out of trouble, learn and get jobs. One day, we’ll make a lot of money for the people of Baltimore together! You always taught me to give something back and that’s what I’m trying to do because people have really been great to me as I’ve gotten older and you’ve left us.

I just wish you could see it – even for one day, what my life has been like! The travel. The roadtrips. The time I’ve spent in Europe, South America and Asia. I went to China with Cal Ripken Jr., who just like you told me, wound up in the Hall of Fame. We even went to Cooperstown for the induction!

But I’ve done World Cups, a bunch of World Series, All Star Games, Stanley Cups, Final Fours, Kentucky Derbies, Super Bowls — you name it! I’ve really had a great life – a great time since you left me!

Oh – that’s right – I almost forgot. The Super Bowl!

Yep, Baltimore WON the Super Bowl back in 2001. I sorta forgot that you didn’t know that…

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Mom happier than she was when the Ravens beat the Giants that night. I was at the game that night in Tampa under the stars but she called me, bawling like a baby – she really loves the Ravens, Pop. I wish you could be there to watch those games with her on Sunday.

I took her to a game back in August to see the guys in purple play. I’m not sure if you get You Tube up where you are, but if you do here’s what it looked like:

Click here to view the embedded video.

She calls me every weekend and a lot of times I’m there at the games in all these far-flung places like Minnesota or Green Bay or New England and she wants updates. We have this tall quarterback named Joe Flacco who is her favorite. He wears No. 5 – just like Brooksie!

But sports and radio and Baltimore have been good to me all these years. All those things you taught me – fairness, integrity, working hard, practicing hard, being a good teammate, running out every groundball, looking for the cutoff man, playing by the rules – that’s all really helped me in the business world. Some days I feel like a success, some days I feel like the world’s biggest failure but I never give up. I never, ever give up!

And I always try to do the right thing…

And even though things are kinda crappy – the economy is worse than it was back in 1979, when you came home every day scared to death that you were gonna lose your job at ‘The Point – I’m in a good spot. I have a really good product and it’s growing every day but it’s hard work. Nothing I’m allergic to though. (Don’t worry…I never take a “scratch” either!)

But there’s lots of stuff you’d really like about the world in 2010 and stuff that reminds me of you every day.

They have Chick-Fil-A’s now where you don’t have to go into the mall. These computers have kinda taken over the world and you wouldn’t have to wait for The Sporting News or the Baseball Digest anymore. Heck, you wouldn’t even be pissed every morning at 5 a.m. because The Sun came late and you didn’t get to read it before work. You can read it ANYTIME on this device! Sounds kinda like a “dream,” doesn’t it?

You could even take your phone into the bathroom and READ on it while seated instead of taking the newspaper up there when you stink up the joint!

Ha!!! (Made you laugh!!!)

But we’re cool down here. Mom is fine, still feisty and nagging the hell outta me the way I like it. Barry is 25 now and helps me at WNST and is good guy. You two would be hell together watching Orioles games in high definition TV. (They call it HD – it’s kinda like 3D, just a little different. It’s just a really, really clear TV – everybody has them now and it’s kinda neat, makes you feel like you’re right on the field!)

I have an awesome wife that I met at a hockey game who likes sports even more than I do — most days anyway. She’s a Red Sox fan and she gets to have all of the fun in baseball season because the Orioles haven’t played a meaningful game since 1997. They stink every stinking year! It’s awful, really…but like I told you, google it!

Maybe I really just wish you were here from August through January every year — but you’re really not missing much from April through the summer…

So, I just wanted to say hi and share this letter. I’m gonna share it with the people who read my “internet column” and hope that they write me some neat stories about their lives and memories and emotions with their Pop. You wouldn’t believe what a big “celeb” I turn you into every March 5^th!

People write me every year and ask me about my “radio show for my Pop.” Well, this year for your 91st birthday, I thought I’d do something extra special and write you a letter instead. Maybe this will be the new format every year, who knows?

But I hope you’re resting comfortably and that someone is watching over me down here.

Life is good. Times are tough. The world is changing. Sports is in a weird place in Baltimore but I have a good feeling about things and I’m even optimistic that one day the Orioles will be good and kind and honorable again and the games will be fun for me.

Give Steady my best if you see him. Tell all of my friends like Clem Florio and the other fellas that “Nasty loves ‘em and misses ‘em!” (OH…I almost forgot! I really hope you got to say hello to Ted Williams a few years ago. I know how much you loved him!)

In the meantime, I’m sure the Ravens will give me plenty to write you about and the business stuff and building this company has been a lot of fun and keeps me plenty busy.

And if you ever bump into Howard Cosell, you should apologize, Pop! You were really wrong about him! He really DID know what the hell he was talking about!

Have a great birthday, Mr. Pisces! I’ll have some strawberry shortcake out in Phoenix in your honor!

Strangely enough, I’m having breakfast with Frank Kush today at his office at Arizona State and lunch with a bunch of the San Diego Padres front office folks. (Aunt Jane would really dig it!)

I have a feeling your name will come up!

Happy Birthday, you old fart!

Ninety one would’ve been fun but, hopefully, you’re getting satellite up there so you can watch the Terps game this weekend.

And if the MASN feed doesn’t come in, don’t feel so bad. You’re better off with the VHS tapes you left with from 1983…

Love,

Me

What’s that axiom? “It’s what you learn after you know everything that really counts!”

Yet again, more words wasted and crow swallowed. It was just another humbling, woefully wrong prediction for my own actions and a future gone awry as I continue to grow in years and wisdom in my 40’s.

If there’s one pearl of wisdom I’ve learned the hard way it’s this: the learning NEVER stops and the world never stops changing. I’ve committed myself to be a student of life and it’s what gets me out of bed and keeps me alive and vibrant during these tough times.

The entrepreneur in me just got back from eight days in Fort Lauderdale at the Super Bowl watching all of the “big boys” do what they do – television, radio, newspapers, web entities, etc. It’s gone from old days of “Radio Row” to a hodgepodge of different media resources at the Media Center in 2010. And the national media outlets are all scrambling, trying to figure out how to serve a sports fan base that is now fractured via age and technological savvy and dinosaur systems and old-world employees and employers who have no idea how to make this emerging world of new media work to their advantage.

In one corner the NFL owns all of the Sirius/XM programming and the centerpiece of the NFL Network set and in the other corner Motorola is dropping big bucks to buy sponsorship of a “beer-less” media hospitality area and underwriting the “OCNN” – the Ocho Cinco News Network, featuring Chad himself and friends like Ray Rice and Chris Cooley.

The world of sports media has changed forever and the Super Bowl continued to prove what I already know: the web will rule the new world.

If you want to read a sensational book on this brave new world, pick up Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush It” and thank me later. Most of what I would predict for the future would be contained in his 132-page “must read.”

I delayed this blog for a few days – mainly because of the weather, flight issues and my illness but also because I wanted to take in the full Fort Lauderdale week and observe what I was seeing at the Super Bowl before I wrote the “finale” to my five-part missive here on the “state” of the media – and not just local sports media, but media in general.

There’s no bigger event than that monstrous marvel they put on in Miami on Sunday night, and virtually everything there from a media standpoint is “cutting edge” when it comes to the marketing and delivery of news, information and hype for the biggest game of them all. And while MLB and the NBA continue to shrink in our culture and the NHL still can’t grow its sport, the NFL continues to soar to heights so high that the only thing that’ll hold it back is how greedy all of the parties will get in how to divide up so much money, interest, love and passion. To the world of SaatchiKevin (another of my web resource/genius links), it’s a “Lovemark” – the most rare of brand breeds.

If you believe the TV ratings, Sunday’s game was watched by more people than any event in the history of the American universe. (By the way, I don’t necessarily believe the previous statement – as I’ve written this week — but who am I to argue and what difference does it make? A LOT of people watched the game on Sunday! Certainly more than anything else our culture offers, the Super Bowl is “THE” American event! A lot of marketing was done. And those commercials are a couple of million bucks a piece for a reason…)

I’ve made a lot of strong statements over the last week. Many have been backed up with new sciences of measurement, technology, your mobile device and 26 years of studying how all of this sports media stuff works. It’s been my passion for as long as I can remember.

But like every other “expert” in the marketplace, we’re all guessing what this thing is going to look like in three-to-five years.

I know where it’s NOT going. And that’s back to three TV stations, a few powerful, dominant radio stations (FM or AM) and it certainly will have nothing to do with printing the news today and delivering it tomorrow on a paper product.

The future is in your pocket. It’s in your phone and it will evolve – much more quickly than any of us can imagine – from there.

Virtual keyboards. Virtual porn. Virtual sports. Live HD broadcasts of sporting events where you pick your seat. Since the purchase of my Droid back in November, I’ve had less use for my laptop every single day. The “third screen” as they call it in the industry is exploding and it’ll never regress. It makes life too easy, too accessible. Just having something as trivial as Google maps on my phone has given me hours of my life back to use building WNST.net.

Honestly, just think about how far it has evolved in the last 12 months with the advances of social media like Facebook and Twitter? Or the last three years, with the ability to now stream most anything to a mobile device? Or the last five years, when you had never seen HD TV before? Or the last 10 years, where websites now break news all day and everything happens in “real” time?

I’ve now been a consumer of the media for about 38 years and a producer of sports media-related content in Baltimore for 26 years.

I’m closer to your uncle’s age than your son or daughter. Now, think about how much that “old guy” uncle of yours who has eschewed modern media is missing by not texting, not using a computer, getting online or using email. Everybody has someone “older” in their life whom hasn’t caught on to this “media” and “mobile” thing yet, right?

I had employees at my company as recently as six months ago still using fax machines to relay information. Some people in my world still don’t text. Some people don’t do social media. Some people still wait for the 11 o’clock news. Or ‘til the next morning to pick up a newspaper at the Royal Farms on the corner. And some people, like me, are on Facebook and Twitter via the palm of their hands 24 hours a day.

It’s a very tangled web with so many ways to reach people and ways of giving them the information where they want it but the great equalizer will be the web. Because — eventually – the dinosaurs like newspapers, TV and radio will not roam the earth and the simplicity, connectedness and exchange of information via mobile devices will flatten the earth for companies like WNST.net.

A Haiti-sized earthquake, a Hurricane Katrina-style whirlwind has moved into the sphere of media and has forever altered the way we get information about virtually anything in the world. The web has replaced all of the libraries of the world and amassed their information, all of the record stores and malls in the world and put their goods on sale at a stroke and allowed everyone to communicate freely in real time. If you’re not using Skype, I pray for you…

This five-part series of many words, concepts, facts, accusations and observations was written to make you – the eventual user of all of this stuff and consumer of this information – think about the future and how you consume your local sports media.

We’ve also provided a detailed WNST “State of Baltimore Sports Media” survey to accompany the blogs so that you could give us honest feedback so that we can make WNST.net better. I sincerely hope you fill it out and be as honest as you feel you should be.

We want to be the best. I won’t apologize for that. I won’t accept anything less than that from myself, or any of our employees or partners at WNST.net.

I asked a lot of specific questions in the survey. But when it comes to the future, the best questions are the ones that can’t be answered. Most of this stuff has no “set” answer only a rearview mirror of the way things “used to be.” Kind of like life itself. We’re never going backwards on the technology and the past does not equal the future.

The NFL doesn’t know where this new world of media is going. Drew and I chatted with Sean McManus – a Baltimorean, son of Jim McKay and the current President of CBS News and Sports — and he has no real idea where this world of new media is going.

I go to seminars in New York all of the time with the biggest and brightest in world of media and they’re as befuddled as the rest of us. And the rank and rile sportswriters and broadcasters that I’ve spoken with over the past three years are a mess. I reaffirmed that last week when I quizzed dozens of people about our industry only to get a myriad of bizarre observations and old-way-of-thinking sadness. Most are just beginning the first steps to understanding how the new world of measurement will affect them and their personal brands.

I just know it’s changing more rapidly than anyone imagined and I see it and experience it every day. I use it all – web apps, email, text, Facebook, Twitter, social media, Droid, Four Square, etc. – I and think it’s cool and so does everyone else I interact with online.

For the younger generation, it’s their way of life!

To anyone over 30, we’ll will never be able to relate in the same way because the ingrained simplicity for the next generation will cause a synapse in all sorts of ways – kinda like when my son was texting me five years ago and I had no idea how to retrieve the messages on my phone let alone respond on my 12-digit keypad. Every day more of that goes on in the world of emerging technology. And every day it’s a full time job to keep up with it all. Personally, I rely on Mashable, but you can pick a myriad of different ways to get this social media world brought to you.

And anyone who calls themselves an expert in this new world of new media is a liar or a speculative snake oil salesperson or latter-day clairvoyant.

I think I know a lot about it. And I certainly know enough to know that we’re only at the very beginning of a modern-day miracle of transformation in how we take in media – and I don’t just mean sports media in Baltimore. EVERYTHING that we knew about the world of media from the 1950s until two years ago is now a dinosaur when a guy from Dundalk like me can build a company like WNST.net. – one that essentially transmits news, information, audio, video and community in real time from anywhere in the world. We’re unlimited in our scope or the ability to transform sports media in Baltimore. We’re only limited in the resources that the marketplace provides via sponsorship.

After doing the last 16 “Radio Row” stints, it’s really remarkable when I see how polarizing and different the strategies of various companies – from the largest networks to the smallest radio stations – are handling the emerging changes in media and how the content is distributed.

But I’ll give you one key indicator. It always starts with what the sponsors and advertisers want. They pay for all of it and nearly all of the Super Bowl advertisers of substance and vision were chasing people to their computers to get folks on their Facebook, Twitter or dedicated online places with their uber-expensive, :30 second ads the other night. It’s not just Highlandtown’s C.E.O. Bob Parsons and Go Daddy who are trying to get you to watch the rest of the Danica Patrick commercial online and then chat about it on Twitter or Facebook anymore.

Virtually EVERY advertiser was chasing Super Bowl watchers to their laptops or PDA’s during the Saints 31-17 win on Sunday night. And aside from natural disasters and blizzards, the last bastion of “live” event programming is sports. Every other thing on your television is “DVR-able.” People still watch sports live – and probably always will – meaning the sponsor messages actually get seen and not fast-forwarded through. Radio is also considered more effective by marketers because folks have yet to figure a way to skip messages other than changing the channel, which is more of an FM habit.

So, if the Super Bowl is the “cutting edge” and the advertising was primarily sending traffic to the web, then I’m certainly doing the right thing here at WNST.net by attempting to build the greatest Baltimore sports media experience possible on the web. We want to be the place Baltimore communes during games to chat about the games in progress. We want to be the first place you turn for reliable information – when you want it and how you want it.

If you doubt the power of sports to bring people together all you needed to do was watch that parade in New Orleans on Tuesday night and remember what the Ravens’ 2001 championship did for Baltimore. If the Saints’ Super Bowl was vindication for Katrina, then Trent Dilfer and that defense was a massive vindication for all of us here and the Irsay/Mayflower memories and civic sadness. Sports brings people together. The Ravens bring people together like the Orioles used to when they cared about the community. WNST is designed to do that as well.

More than 1,000 of you have helped this week by filling out our survey. Honestly, we want more because we want our research to be as accurate as possible. We’re giving away a Panasonic 50-inch HDTV to one lucky winner.

Fill out our WNST State of Baltimore Sports Media Survey…

Now that I’m off of the radio and this blog will be my primary source to divulge information and my opinions and observations, this year I’ll become much more unabashed in what I’m writing about business, media and how it all works in Baltimore. The truth: I got off the radio to run the business. It’s really where my passion lies in 2010 and where my daily focus needs to be for the future of WNST.net. Anyone who really knows me knows this.

I’ll be doing some videos on the stuff that we’re doing to make WNST.net better as we install new developments and technology. We might even do some video tutorials with some features on the site. And if you give me a good ideas, we’ll try to install them somehow. I love when I see creative stuff on the web.

I’m trying to build a special kind of business with free speech and community and commerce at its core at WNST.net.

We want to cover the local high schools better. We want to do more with lacrosse. We want the Orioles to get “fixed” at some point. We want to be an “all seasons” sports resource for the Baltimore community. We want to find young, rock star writers and contributors and we’ll be doing another “Coors Light King of Baltimore Sports Media” competition this spring. People who love Baltimore sports as much as we do.

We want to take what we’re learning from our current poll and give you more of what you want. The company is nothing without the people who power it. I never forget that fact.

It’s why I started WNST.net in the first place.

Unlike the baseball owner in town, I’m happily held accountable.

We’ve made it this far against all of the odds. We’re No. 1 in the marketplace in daily traffic for Baltimore sports. That’s just a measurable fact.

Our product has NEVER been better. We’ve never had MORE people involved in the WNST message and every day we set out to be “different” than the corporate, out-of-town managed and produced sports radio, television and newspaper types in town.

We can move quicker. We can get you the information in the format you want it. And we’ll get it right every time and hopefully make you think – and feedback – in a variety of ways.

I’ll be unabashed, honest, just like I’ve always been. But it gets harder every day with various political and financial pressure and censorship as we’ve outline this week.

The old media is fading. They’re for sale and it’s obvious. The ratings are for sale, too, really. Press passes and freedom of speech mean nothing. And lies published about you in the new world of the internet take on lives of their own.

But to me, you can’t sell the city off to the gypsies and live to tell. Baltimore is a national punch line in many ways. The Mayor just got indicted and convicted. The Wire is the paranoia of the public relations people in town but it’s how a large segment of the country views us. The Orioles are so “uncool” and irrelevant that Leno and Letterman don’t even make jokes about them. They’re THAT bad…that insignificant. The Baltimore Sun is in bankruptcy.

Where will the voices of Baltimore come from in the coming years? If it’s not WNST.net it’ll be someplace like it — a community “town hall” that will be more representative than a corporate, out-of-town news organization with no vested interest in Baltimore.

We believe in free speech. We don’t ban the media. We are accountable.
And we’re growing. Are you coming with us?

What more can we do at WNST other than state our mission and follow up on it with hard work every day? And hopefully you’ll talk about it and tell your sports friends about WNST and how we’re “different” than the other guys. We’re proud of that!

Fill out our survey! Tell us what we’re missing. Tell us how we suck. Tell us that we’re great. Tell us whatever you want.

Do you want mobile apps? Widgets? Better information? Honest, accurate information? Sent directly to your PDA? Available from anywhere in the world?

So much for that “little radio station,” right?

So what does the future digital world look like?

Are the bloggers going to take over the universe, the greatest fear of the Buzz Bizzinger types?

Will Twitter become the world’s biggest online “newspaper” in real time?

And will team websites evolve past the modern day extension of the current Jim Hunter and include analysis and/or criticism of themselves and their employees? (Probably not…)

We’ll keep working hard and communicating and trying to get better. That’s been my solemn vow from the beginning, to be the best.

My staff and I wake up every morning fully committed to fulfilling that goal.

How are we doing?

Go ahead and drop me a personal note…nasty@wnst.net. Get it off your chest!

To all of the folks who’ve given us the support and enthusiasm over the years – do us two favors:

1. Say nice things to your friends and recommend the stuff you really like at WNST.net. It’s the most robust, easily-accessible and FREE website in the marketplace.
2. Join our contests, events, promotions and clubs at WNST.net.

And if you’re STILL not satisfied, just do me a favor: send me a note right now either here or on Facebook. My Facebook name is Nestor J. Aparicio and I approve all people who want to be “friends” with me on my friends and personal page.

I worked at The Sun, wrote The Moon and now I will attempt to shape the next decade of sports media in Baltimore and where it’s going by building a company that serves our community. (Maybe we’ll call that “The Stars.”)

Here’s my personal email again (it’s the only one I have): nasty@wnst.net

As usual, we strive to stay ahead of the curve on technology.

The WNST story continues…

I really hope you choose to be a part of it!

Six months after he was portrayed in a cartoon on the cover of Sports Illustrated as “kicking the dawgs,” Modell — a complete stranger to me — made an incredibly telling pronouncement to me about the kind of guy he was and his philosophy on the media and credibility.

Being an old TV guy, he looked at me with incredible conviction in the first 20 minutes that I knew him and said: “You NEVER be afraid to criticize me! Say what you feel and think and try to be fair and honest. If all you ever do is praise me they’ll know you’re a phony and they’ll never believe a word you say. You HAVE to criticize and question me to be credible.”

Wow…

Imagine that coming from Peter G. Angelos?

Just think about that statement – and the wisdom of it – for a moment.

And then tell me how you can POSSIBLY dispute the premise?

I loved Chuck Thompson. I loved Rex Barney as a person. I like “nice” guys. Hell, I threw a banquet for the nicest guys in Baltimore sports every year for nearly a decade raising more than $200,000 for local charities until the Orioles decided to stop participating. (And if THAT isn’t rich with irony, I don’t know what is? The Orioles decided that a “Nice Guy Award” was something they didn’t want to be associated with…)

But it’s my opinion that guys in the media who are “too nice” all the time are not only a poor source for real information, but in many ways they’re same people that I never read, listen to or respect because they don’t have an opinion or a credible view on a topic. I’m assuming they all HAVE opinions but they’re too afraid to share them for fear of the kinds or reprisals and criticism that I get every day here in the comments at WNST.net.

But as I always say, if you want to piss someone off, just offer your opinion. It’s the way of the world.

But at some point, a member of the media has to have a little bit of a spine for me to pay any attention to him or her or to give them my valuable time in hearing their message. (On the flip side, if you’re only schtick is trashing people 24×7, I’m not at all interested in that, either.)

I found it fascinating that Jon Miller finally made it into the Hall of Fame earlier this week. Thirteen years ago, Miller attempted to bring Peter Angelos into the world of the 21^st century where to have credibility with a mass audience you need to have freedom of speech and the ability to opine with conviction. Especially when you’re doing nine innings a night, more than 150 nights a year.

For this – Jon Miller, the greatest baseball broadcaster of our generation — was fired. In hindsight, I have to believe it was the greatest thing that ever happened to Miller, not having to be a eunuch for the last 13 years as the franchise has disintegrated into a last place, civic disgrace.

But the Angelos Orioles didn’t care then and I’m sure they don’t care now. They went and got Jim Hunter – a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees – who’s been “bleeding a little orange and black” for the last 13 years while polishing up 13 consecutive years of meaningless baseball games.

Here’s a clip from that fateful interview I did with Peter Angelos in 1997 when he opined about Jon Miller, Baltimore on the road jerseys, baseball in Washington and a variety of other issues. Other than the “I’m a very available individual” comment, my favorite and most telling part of the interview came when we discussed the role of broadcasters and broadcast partners and their role as “not being journalists.”

It’s only a minute long. I edited down so you can listen for yourself:

So if you think I was a little “hard” or “honest” or “ballsy” in the words that I wrote in Monday’s blog about the current state of Baltimore sports media, this clip is for you. As always, I wrote the truth. This is how Peter Angelos thinks. This is his reality, in his own words and spoken with the passion and conviction of a man on a mission to quell any free thoughts, like his pal Fidel Castro.

I did Free The Birds “protest” back on Sept. 21, 2006, walking out of the stadium with 2,000 people so now I’m banned. Maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked after listening to it again.

Apparently, free speech is something that’s against the rules in his kingdom.

And this, of course, brings us to the kind of “relationship” Angelos has enjoyed with his broadcast partners over the years.

The integrity of the upper management of CBS Radio – namely Bob Phillips and Dave Labrozzi — must be questioned at this point if you heard what Angelos’ mandates are in the above recording. Of course, if you’ve ever listened to WJZ-FM 105.7 “The Fan” you know that I speak the truth about their inability to give you the truth.

Phillips and Labrozzi, via their exclusive arrangement with Angelos and their cozy TV simulcast on MASN, which is wholly owned by Angelos and financially supported via his unwitting cable subscribers, have given up all rights to free speech regarding their sports talk mouthpiece “The Fan.”

Since Phillips royally offended virtually everyone in the Ravens organization over the years when CBS Radio held the purple flagship rights, he was kind of stuck and had to take the Orioles once he was dumped in Owings Mills.

After that loss of the most significant sports property in the marketplace, “The Fan” has made two advertising claims that I find to be among the most phony and disingenuous pronouncements I’ve ever heard.

Let’s start with “Gameday Uncensored,” which was an obvious threat to “get tough” on the Ravens, like a jilted lover. In other words, “you broke up with us and now I’m going to shove it up your rectum if you lose.”

Since that and a very ugly squabble over the legality of their parking lot tailgate, Phillips has once again rankled not only the Ravens but their new broadcast partner, WBAL, by not following a gentleman’s agreement.

Against the wishes of John Harbaugh and the Ravens’ ownership, Phillips has thrown several hundred thousand dollars toward various players for midweek radio shows that I was bluntly told would not be allowed, although the team has no ability via the NFLPA to enforce keeping their players off of the radio at “The Fan.” I honestly think most of Baltimore believes it was Anita Marks’ sole role at the station to be a personal valet for Willis McGahee and Chris McAlister. She was sorta the “Miss Elizabeth” of Baltimore radio.

And if that’s not sadly comical, check out this graphic of a recent ad I saw:

No B.S.? Really? Has anyone in Baltimore heard their radio coverage of the baseball team that lost 98 games last summer and hasn’t played a meaningful game since my son was in the 7^th grade? (He’s now 25, by the way…)

Mark Viviano, Damon Yaffe, Bruce Cunningham and Scott Garceau – and anyone else I’ve missed or anyone else who they’ll hire – don’t have the ability or “right” to speak the truth about anything Orioles related. But we all sort of know that, right? (See video above…)

The “rights” to the team’s play-by-play means that you DON’T have the right to tell the truth about the agony of the fans, the losing tradition, the despair of the downtown business community or the team’s refusal to spend any of the $110 million they’re making this year via the MASN deal.

It’s almost comical. They don’t report on the suppression of free speech while they refuse to ask any questions or force any accountability from a billionaire baseball team ownership group that has turned downtown Baltimore into a spring and summer ghost town on summer nights while raping the city of three generations of civic pride and heritage for baseball and pocketing tens of millions of dollars of our cable TV money.

And of course, banning free speech and never taking a question from anyone in the public is standard operating procedure for the baseball team.

So let’s do the dirty, little, “hush money” tree from the top down, shall we? (Pay attention, we might have a quiz at the end of this…or you might just simply have a headache.)

Peter Angelos is a tyrant, a megalomaniac and an opponent of free speech – at this point that supposition should be inarguable by any sensible person.

He owns the Orioles and MASN, where he prints money off the public’s back via their cable TV bill. Angelos has “partnered” with CBS Radio, who pays HIM money and then is a eunuch in every facet of their sports talk product in regard to the worst franchise in the sport. CBS also happens to own WJZ-TV Channel 13, where the Orioles not only put games on during some summer nights, but also use them to co-market “The Fan” and MASN, via a daily simulcast partnership.

Jay Newman, who runs CBS’ WJZ-TV also has a “content sharing” partnership with the bankrupt, dying newspaper down on Calvert Street called The Baltimore Sun. And last, but not least, there’s Pressbox, the woefully out-of-touch monthly sports publication that takes Angelos’ money for print ads (and you KNOW what that means) and is weekend broadcast partners with Bob Phillips and CBS Radio, not to mention WMAR-TV Channel 2.

It’s like one giant old white guy’s media orgy under the cones of silence where Angelos is the fat guy in the middle getting fed grapes by all of his indentured servants and throwing the peasants and the executives money to “tell it the way it really is, but keep your opinions to yourself.”

Read that quote again and go back and listen to it in Angelos’ voice one more time. That’s the EXACT quote…

I guess civic accountability isn’t as significant as that orange ad for fireworks night or The Sun logo over the clock in centerfield at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Who knows? Angelos would be happy if he didn’t lease the boys on Calvert Street a skybox. Word is the fellas in purple across the street are still chasing their pre-bankruptcy skybox money from an advertising deal with the Tribune boys.

So who is the real loser in this continued suppression of ideology and free speech when the teams that are publicly financed, supported and beloved are threatening the media’s ability to have “free speech” via partnership deals?

That would be the citizens of Baltimore.

What do you really want me to do? Endorse 13 years of mean-spirited behavior and ineptitude all while the team continues to lose and print money at a mind-blowing level? Money that’s being siphoned quietly off of your cable TV bill?

Is that what a real “fan” of the team or the community should do? Is that a responsible act on my part to “play the game?” Should I “tell it like it is but keep my opinions to myself?”

There’s NO chance that’s going to happen with me or with WNST.net while I have a breath left in my body.

But you know who WILL endorse it?

Yep…you guessed it! Just about EVERYBODY else!

WBAL did for years, until it got nasty between Jeff Beauchamp, Ed Kiernan & the Angelos boys. When we did Free The Birds, you could hear the chant “Free The Birds” for about 75 minutes all during the radio broadcast of the game. When I left the stadium there were news crews downtown covering the protest. But the Orioles broadcasters NEVER made mention of the event but immediately following the game threw back to the WBAL-AM studios calling themselves “Maryland’s news leader.”

Journalism? Not really…

And now Bob Phillips – the “real” king of Baltimore sports media stars – is happy to keep his country club membership while hiring “experts” like Anita Marks to bring you what’s “really” happening in Baltimore sports. Or worse yet, Phillips has taken formerly respected media personalities and told them to “tell it like it is, but keep your opinions to yourself.”

Phillips and CBS Radio are so busy alternately create love & hate for the Ravens that I honestly can’t figure it out — love for the players and their fame and money and hate for the purple management and ownership. Gameday Uncensored. Anita Marks as an “expert.” Mark Viviano doing a love in from the field in Westminster and post-game video via MASN from the bowels of M&T Bank Stadium, where the Ravens unwittingly went into business with Angelos only to have pre-game shows not exist in part of the first season of the arrangement.

Meanwhile, poor Scott Garceau seems to be pining away to do play-by-play again, waiting for the folks at WBAL and Hearst on TV Hill to go out of business and allow Bob Phillips to get his hands back onto the exorbitant rights fees of the Ravens that have driven both WBAL & 98 Rock into being nearly broke and Steve Davis and the aforementioned Beauchamp to be on the unemployment line.

We now live in an era where cheaters and liars and thieves can run rampant, even in our local government. And when they do, people like Phillips are there to offer them a job doing radio to “set the record straight.” I wonder what day part Sheila Dixon will host come 2011 at CBS Radio?

In sports, there’s national outrage over steroid scandals and crooked referees and Tiger Woods’ sex life.

But in Baltimore, where the steroid scandal played a massive role, there was no investigation into any of the Orioles’ links by the local media. Most people in baseball would tell you the Orioles were the epicenter of the steroid scandal. From Rafael Palmeiro to Jason Grimsley to David Segui to Sammy Sosa to Brian Roberts to Larry Bigbie to Jay Gibbons, the Camden Yards clubhouse was the epitome of the problem in the sport five years ago yet no one here even took on the issue because of Angelos’ mandates and the banning of people like me have what’s left of the “media” in town frightened to speak their minds for fear of losing their career.

And as I stated on Tuesday, I get it. These people have families to feed, children in school, bills to pay like the rest of us.

And as you can well imagine, Angelos’ people routinely pick up the phone and tell people not to do business with WNST. They did it on Monday after Part One of this series.

But where would the sports world be without investigative reporting? Where will this country be when the people who are counted on to catch the cheaters are threatened to “tell it like it is, but keep your opinions to yourself.”

Who would catch crooked NBA referees, and billionaire golfers who claim to be squeaky clean and a role model and then cheat on their wives at every turn? Who would be the ones to investigate BALCO and the likes of Rafael Palmeiro, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa?

But we also live in a world where people can write anonymous graffiti on the internet or unaccountable, un-credentialed and uninformed bloggers can accuse anyone of using steroids or far worse. We have fans shooting pictures of inebriated athletes, philandering celebrities and coaches with middle fingers.

We even have crooked reporters at the New York Times who are stealing stories and making up fictional essays and presenting them as facts.

But there’s nothing worse, in my mind, than a media organization passing itself off as a credible source of “news” or “friends you can turn to” or “community watchdogs” and then taking a paycheck as hush money by the sports teams and somehow making a “flagship” status sound like that access is somehow valuable when it mutes the most powerful credibility-builder of them all: telling the truth and giving a balanced assessment of a topic or issue.

In the sports media world it’s almost criminal what’s happening here, especially when you consider the immense cash flow of the baseball team and its community-gifted gold mine called MASN.

“Mister Angelos and Sons Network”…

“Making Absurd Sums for Nothing”…

Whatever you refer to it as, just know this:

They are PRINTING money and are into everyone in the state’s pocketbook for civic, media welfare via your cable bill. And all because Bug Selig couldn’t figure out how to make baseball work in Montreal, and Washington, D.C. was the only other place that wanted the Expos (outside of Puerto Rico, where they hosted game for several years before quitting).

Angelos killed baseball enthusiasm in Baltimore. Washington fans left and eventually got the team. Selig and MLB legal team got nervous when Angelos threatened litigation over territorial rights, Comcast got bent over in court by crooked judges and the rest is history. Angelos controls all of the money, both teams’ survival really, because he makes money no matter what. Even when the team loses 98 games, he gets his $110 million annually. And the MLB owners gave him an astonishing “floor” price of $335 million – twice what he paid for the franchise.

Modern day radio play-by-play in Baltimore is all but worthless. No one listens to the games. (Hell, no one goes to the games!) There are no direct sales outlets for the games. And the internet access and checking scores on mobile devices has all but eliminated anyone’s need to “run out to the car” to check the score, like we used to do in the 1970s.

Now, the Orioles rest at CBS Radio via 105.7 “The Fan.” They have hosts whose bread was buttered several years ago from criticizing the Orioles and Angelos the way I do – that is, until the rights fell into the hands of Bob Phillips, who is more interested in squeezing money out of the Orioles than in doing the right thing for the city, which has been broken on summer nights due to the ineptitude and mean-spiritedness of the people who run the team.

Sure, the Orioles lost 98 games. The fans of the team lost 98 games. The players lost 98 games.

But Angelos MADE $40 million in 2009 on the Orioles and our tax dollars.

So, who is going to report that besides us?

Oh, that’s right. Or write? The Baltimore Sun – the “newspaper of record,” who has signage in the stadium, orange ads in their slimmed down sports section and a skybox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

I’m sure THEY’RE gonna tell Baltimore the truth while they’re in bankruptcy and gutting their editorial staff?

And I love how all of these “traditional” media pretend we don’t exist. See yesterday’s piece and Part 3 for more on that.

We’re the “guys down the dial” or “that little AM radio station” which cracks me up, because we’re NOT a radio station. If you’re reading these very words you KNOW we have power beyond the AM radio station the federal government affords me with antiquated 1948 rules. You’re reading my words here – not hearing them in the car on your radio — because the internet is powerful.

No one EVER mentions my name or they would dare break the news that we actually exist and the fact that we’re telling the truth. But as I’ve said many times before, I’ll ENCOURAGE you to visit them. We’re better than them. And we’ll prove it every hour of every day by competing, breaking news, giving you honest and accurate information loaded with expertise and authenticity and integrity.

But they think this is the right way to do business. Maybe it is if you’re Bob Phillips and you’re just trying to make your quarterly numbers for the stockholders. But probably not, in my mind, if you care to create a brand that people trust and will turn to for the next 25 years.

Recently a sports official told me – as if it was GOSPEL – that the Baltimore Sun is on 230,000 doorsteps every morning in our state. THAT, I find about as hard to believe as the 18,000 who regularly come to Camden Yards disguised as about 10,000 to anyone’s eyes who have ever estimated crowds in stadiums. It’s beyond laughable.

But the bigger the fake numbers, the more money they can all make.

So if you think that these media “monoliths” – the same ones who have no integrity in reporting on broadcast partners (and as we showed you above, they’re all kinda interconnected and sleeping together in one way or another) — are not above adjusting the odometer for their financial benefit then I have some non-floodable property for you in New Orleans.

Yet here comes the great equalizer: the world wide web.

And we’re trying to make it – and the information we give you as independent, caring local journalists — better.

You can let us know how we can be better – and judge the local sports media for yourself – by filling out our extensive “State of Baltimore Sports Media” survey here…

We’re building this company for the Baltimore sports fans.

Who do you trust in 2010?

Where do you get your information and who is “greasing” whom?

As Paul Harvey once said, “Now you know the rest of the story…”

Our FINAL class has been postponed until Tuesday: The future? Where is this all heading in a world of ever-evolving personal communication and connection.

After receiving that quick text, I jumped onto the computer and saw that every Tennessee TV station was reporting his murder within the previous five minutes. At 4:21 p.m. more than 3,900 people received a WNST Text reporting the only facts we knew: “Tennessee media is reporting that Steve McNair has been murdered. More to come…”

At 4:50 p.m., ESPN finally reported it. And at 5:37 p.m. – a full 76 minutes later, The Sun finally had it on their website.

While I was blogging feverishly, looking for any information I could get from Nashville in the first 30 minutes on a sweltering holiday summer day – monitoring all of their TV stations and newspapers and fielding a wide variety of emails, Tweets and texts – apparently the 3,900 people on our WNST Text Service had taken matters into their own hands in forwarding our message to tens of thousands of other people like a game of virtual phone booth. More than 23,000 people had visited my blog by 8 p.m. on a premier national holiday on a day when virtually no one was in front of a computer. They were all coming from the palms of theirs hands via their mobile devices.

THAT – in the previous 25 years of my media existence — would have been impossible in the old, dinosaur world of local news. And it certainly would’ve been exclusively the area of the three local TV stations and, probably, WBAL Radio. But in the new world, they were all coming to the local source of the breaking sports news: WNST.net.

But the one thing about our WNST Text Service that often goes without saying is this: when we report it, you KNOW it’s true. Through our own goodwill, hard work and credibility, we have established a reputation for never, ever being wrong on a news story. And there are now more than 5,200 of you on the WNST Text Service.

Join the WNST Text Service…

And it goes without say that “timeliness” and the element of surprise is, in fact, the essence of what makes it “news.” News is immediate. News is shareable. News is eternal.

And, clearly, not all news is good.

But the depth of our content was also apparent on that sad, summer day. Ironically, we had video of Steve McNair joining about 1,200 Ravens fans in Nashville to greet them from January of last year before the big playoff game in our You Tube video vault. It’s a really weird clip — especially given it was the last time he’d do anything with his Baltimore roots. We raised $5,000 that night last January for the Air McNair Foundation and the Baltimore Ronald McDonald House. I had given very little thought that night at Limelight in Nashville that I would never see Steve McNair alive again.

Like most breaking news stories – and all tragedies – it was completely unpredictable that Steve McNair could die like that on the 4th of July. But when those things do happen, WNST.net has become a trusted source for the confirmation of any news event in Baltimore.

As a guy who has dedicated his life to journalism, it was a proud day for me and for our company that we got the story first, right and the follow up was extensive and thorough. And if you were one of the thousands who was forwarding our WNST Texts through mobile cyberspace, we really appreciate it.

The No. 1 way our company grows every day at WNST is when Facebook and Twitter and Text users tell and “share” our information, blogs, news and links to other folks via their computer or mobile devices.

If you “care” about WNST.net – and you think we’re doing a good job and trust us – the best thing you can do to help us is to share our content and spread the word that we’re doing a great job with Baltimore sports, community and conversation.

And it’s SO easy to share it. Look at ANY blog in our sphere and at the top of every story is a “SHARE” button – to Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. If you read something you like or something you think your friends would like it, simply spreading the word is a click away.

So, here’s your question of the day: Who do YOU trust in the Baltimore sports media? And where do you turn to get your Baltimore sports news? And what could we do better at WNST.net to serve you?

Fill out our “WNST State of Baltimore Sports Media Survey” here for a chance to win a Panasonic 50-inch HDTV…

It’s what this blog series and our survey this month is all about – getting your honest feedback and trying to create a “perfect” version of WNST.net. If you haven’t filled it out, we’d really appreciate it if you took a few minutes and help us get better by answering our questions about your current habits.

While the McNair story is a sad and morbid one, it does tell the tale of what the modern media is all about: getting the story right and getting the story first and then getting the story into people’s hands as quickly as possible.

In the industry, it’s called “content” and “distribution.”

In the three years since we began our WNST Text Service in January 2007, according to the Baltimore Sun (and every other media outlet in the marketplace), we’ve NEVER, EVER broken a story – NEVER.

There have been literally dozens of occasions when I’ve gone surfing other media sites looking for another verified source that confirms the information we know before we send our official WNST Text only to see nothing on their respective websites, Twitter feeds, etc. Just to make sure someone else isn’t reporting what we already know.

I have never, ever seen any “as first reported by WNST” in any medium at any point. Only our Twitter users or Facebook friends will say “WNST is reporting (blah, blah, blah)…”

Sadly, in a ridiculous set of Tweets last month, one of The Sun’s reporters had the audacity to accuse us of “stealing a scoop” when it was publicly announced that the Ravens were wearing black uniform tops vs. the Bears. It’d be laughable if it weren’t so sad – but everyone in our industry is sensitive to the timeliness of information.

Like winning a football game or any sports competition, getting it “first” is “winning.”

And much like Bear Bryant, “I ain’t never been nuthin’ but a winner.”

I’ve always had a different set of rules and a heavier cross to bear doing radio on the AM side of the dial and being a “blacksheep” of the Baltimore sports media kingdom. I get it. I’ve been doing this for more than 25 years as the arrogant underdog “self promoter” from Dundalk so being “kicked around” or “unrecognized” as a news source is what I’ve come to expect from our competition. Honestly, there’s a sick part of me that really likes it. It gets me out of bed every morning and inspires me to have to prove myself and prove what WNST.net stands for every day.

But as we said yesterday, it’s now apparent and inarguable who gets stories first and who has the most people reading them or watching them or listening to them via the web. It’s the internet in 2010. It’s measurable. It’s definable. It’s trackable. It’s easy to investigate.

So who is doing it fast and doing it well and with integrity? What is good journalism in 2010?

What is fair criticism and what’s a “low blow”?

What could possibly be left in the sports media universe that is unethical and inappropriate in a world where guys stick cameras in female sportscasters’ hotel bathrooms, TMZ.com posts drunken pictures of athletes with girls in random clubs and fans verbally assault and stalk players and coaches into scenes like Rex Ryan’s latest fiasco in Florida where one middle finger becomes a tabloid journalism wet dream in a place like New York?

And of course the internet can seem like one giant message board with anonymous idiots having instant access to write anything vitriolic or profane — like a giant, virtual bathroom wall of graffiti with no eraser.

Lord knows, I’ve had my fair share of lies, stalkers, weirdos, death threats and virtual garbage written about me over the years. And it’s amazing how quickly the nasty garbage spreads in the world of new media. Most of the time these accusations from cowards was accompanied later that afternoon by a call from The Sun’s Ray Frager looking to indict me and end my career and everything I’ve built on one Jimmy The Greek or Al Campanis moment where I might’ve “slipped” and made a foolish mistake.

One reporter from The Sun went through the Baltimore media crew and the Ravens’ locker room trying to convince people I was gay a few years ago in a brazen attempt to besmirch my name.

(By the way, if I were gay I’d be the proudest gay man on earth but the truth is that I prefer women. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…)

The point is this: when I began in this business 26 years ago, only a handful of people at the newspapers, radio and television had the “reach” or “distribution” to send any information to the masses – good or bad. And it could make or break any career or reputation.

Now, via Twitter, Facebook, message boards and the internet any one anonymous person can write or transmit any message on a bathroom wall for an audience of tens of thousands if it’s placed in the right place and shared. For better, or worse that’s the way of the world in the new millennium.

But, much like the quality and growth of our WNST Text Service, the content and accuracy and credibility of the message is everything. At this point, if the web comment is signed by “Hugh G. Rection” or “Jack Mehoff” it’s generally taken for the mud or venom that it is by any thinking person, much like a bathroom wall that says “Call Suzie for a good time.”

BUT…if it says “WNST.net is reporting…” you know you can trust that it’s true. We’re proud to sign our real name on anything we write or say.

As for the actual news — not the slander — in the old days “PI” – pre-internet — it wasn’t considered “news” until it was in The Sun. Period.

The newspaper had the power of distribution and the power of being the ONLY place for depth of content.

If a story broke at 10:30 in the morning – let’s say a trade or tragedy like the death of Len Bias in June 1986 – the radio would initially own it until (or unless) the TV went “live” to a press conference or a site to present “breaking news.” So, if the Orioles could get WBAL-TV to dump “Days of Our Lives” for a “We’re signing Jimmy Key press conference” they were a gigantic winner that day for free PR during the offseason. Then, the 6 o’clock news would have an “exclusive” with the newest local hero/athlete/millionaire.

The next morning – still a pretty “fast” turnaround in the old world of dinosaur media — The Sun would provide a recap and in-depth analysis with a Q&A, some quotes, personal information, hobbies, quips, etc. There would be no other immediate source or place to turn for this written information – nowhere in the world to turn that day for this almost exclusive set of facts and content. The Sun would have the smiling press conference picture, the main columnist’s analysis of it, various predictions of success (always the case) and the happiness and joy that surround the off-season sale of baseball optimism.

No one else COULD win. Unless you had a printing press and deep pockets and could put a newspaper on folks’ doorstep the next morning, there was no other source for this kind of sports information other than TV and radio. But The Sun in its monopolistic form in the 1990s, was the ONLY place to get this content in the written form.

But over the last decade, the newspapers have become “olds papers” very quickly.

Most days during the late 1990s and the early part of the century as my radio career evolved, I actually had the day’s news before The Sun. I was at practice most days – for Orioles batting practice or Ravens practices in season – and I went on the radio at 4 p.m. with the latest tidbits, injuries, etc. and the paper didn’t hit the streets until 5 a.m. the next day. And the WBAL-AM 1090 pre-game show didn’t come on until 6 p.m. So I always had the lineups first, the injury reports first and if any “breaking news” like a trade or an arrest happened, I was the first place that had the news and the only place where a regular Joe could call in and opine publicly about whatever the subject matter. But again, you couldn’t read the standings or the box scores on the radio dial.

The Ravens’ emergence in 1996 and the passion for NFL information and the lack of local resources who really knew the league changed the need for the distribution of sports media in Baltimore. People here didn’t really know that they shouldn’t cheer on offense after a generation of football was absent. Early on, I actually had buffoons call and say that Johnny Unitas should be the offensive coordinator or that the Ravens should keep Jon Ogden at guard. And people here certainly didn’t know the salary cap or a lot of the new-world strategies in regard to the inner workings of the game.

Luckily, I had guys like Jim Schwartz and Pat Hill and Marvin Lewis and Kevin Byrne and David Modell teach me about the NFL circa 1996 and I was in a format that was longer than 12 inches of newspaper space or a two-minute highlight reel on the 6 or 11 o’clock news so I could use the information and knowledge and format to my advantage.

While I had a “long format” edge to opine, educate and entertain in the 1990s and early part of the century, television still had the ultimate “big news” monopoly – and still does with some events like the blizzards, trials for crooked Mayors or police chiefs or the crazy Joe Palczynski saga. But the world is now turning to social media to see what their Facebook friends are saying about issues and what people on Twitter are “trending” on a topic.

And, as we’ll discuss at length tomorrow, I think smart people are very, very skeptical about what they’re seeing in modern, corporate-run broadcast American media these days because these entities have censored information and lied to them for so long.

The definition of “bought off” means paying money for a certain tilt to a message. And that’s happening every day right under your nose in Baltimore, especially with the Orioles.

The Sun, WBAL, WJZ – pick any local corporate brand of your choice — they’re ALL desperate to keep sales going because their numbers dwindle every year because the eyeballs are going elsewhere in a big web world and mostly because the product doesn’t have the urgency or the “trustability” or the resonance within the culture, especially for the younger “Ipod generation” who’ve never known a tiny world of three local TV stations, one newspaper and a few local radio stations.

Anyone under the age of 30 has no recollection of life without cable TV and hundreds of channels of specialty programming and millions of websites with endless possibilities and voices and opinions.

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel were the only ones in the world reviewing movies 25 years ago. Now, every one of your Facebook friends is a critic — a food critic, a TV critic, a chef, a political analyst or a local sports expert.

As Deion Sanders once told me, “Nasty, my critics have critics.”

And as Brian Billick always says to me: “They’re gonna spin it however they want anyway.”

True, true, true…

And sports, more than most of life outside of political issues of a truly serious nature, lends itself to mostly harmless opinions — drawing up sides, expertise, parochialism, conflict, pageantry and fellowship while teaching the most virtuous characteristics of our better selves (teamwork, sacrifice, effort, practice, fairness, competition, etc.) – without taking on the real world of issues of economics, law, racism, religious conflict, torturers and war.

Sports is a “war” where no one gets hurt and everyone comes back again next season to “fight again.” It’s a set of “make believe” regional battles presented as entertainment. It’s a daily soap opera where the drama of the contests and the fervor of civic pride provides a backdrop to captivate America.

The “war” going on now in the media world is about content and distribution. The days of the corporate monopoly and corporate “message” are now over because the paradigm has changed.

There will never be three channels of TV again. There will never be a monopoly in any city for a news agency. And radio – while it pains me to say it – is a dying medium as well.

Take our “little AM radio station” at WNST-AM 1570. For about a decade (and six decades before that) the only media that we could create was blind sound, with a daylight radius of 37 miles during the day and eight miles at night. In the old days, we called it “theater of the mind.”

Now consider that at WNST.net we can transmit that same product on a Listen Live feed, while distributing EVERY blind radio sound we’ve ever made on demand, an endless amount of “written” words on our blogs including standings, scored and news in real time and full color video uplinks from Radio Row at the Super Bowl this week in a matter of seconds.

We’ve gone from being a tiny radio station with limited distribution to a full-service radio, television and real-time newspaper available anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. And we come into the palm of your hand via your mobile device.

That’s a powerful, powerful shift in my world. And I plan to take advantage of that opportunity at WNST.net by serving you the best information, analysis and conversation platform in the marketplace.

So, now the best “critics” or writers or distributors of thoughts and communication will win. That’s the content part.

And the distribution part – where WNST.net comes into everyone’s hands in the world via their mobile device – is now simply about the marketing, promotion and moxie of our quality and trusted content.

We think that’s us, at WNST.net.

If you love what we do, we hope you’ll tell your friends and others who would like our product on the web.

If you don’t like what we do, we hope you tell us so we can try to make it better in an ever-changing world.

Once again, here’s the “WNST State of Baltimore Media Survey” that you can fill out for a chance to win a 50-inch Panasonic HDTV…

While many other “vanity” companies charge for a monthly subscription or their publications, we continue to offer the many, many resources at WNST free of charge. They are all sponsor-supported and this how we feed our families.

If you love WNST, join any or all of our FREE services. And if you see a blog or a text or a video or a link that you like on our site, please forward it to a friend. It’s the best thing you can do to be a “friend” to WNST.

We really appreciate your support over all of the years and hope that 2010 is our best year ever at WNST.net.

One thing for sure: we’ve never had better content or distribution of our content.

Tomorrow’s class: the bought off media and the “rest of the story” you don’t know about how the local news world works in Baltimore.

Over the Bay Area’s largest tequila bar, my pal Julio Bermejo (the U.S. Ambassador & world expert on 100% agave tequila) has a bunch of fun signs with slogans and axioms.

Here’s my favorite:

“Tommy’s encourages you to visit our competitors!”

I just love that. Because it’s exactly how we feel at WNST.net. Go ahead and scan the dial, surf the web, Facebook and Twitter away with our competitors – you’ll come back to us.

It’s our solemn goal and daily mission to make it mandatory that you come back to WNST.net every day for your Baltimore sports news, information and conversation because we think our content and observations are the best in the market.

Take the WNST State of Baltimore Sports Media survey here for a chance to win a 50-inch Panasonic HD TV…

The sign at Tommy’s is a symbol of excellence and the ultimate statement of self-confidence in one’s own product/expertise/value. It ain’t bragging if you can back it up, right?

It says we’re so good, you’ll remember us — and you’ll be back because we have the best information, the most accurate information and the most informed opinion, analysis and insights in the marketplace.

Oh, and unlike the others who are being paid “hush money” to cough and look the other way by the teams that they’re ostensibly asked to assess, evaluate and analyze with “integrity,” you always know you’re always going to get the truth from us.

For the first time in the history of WNST as a company dating back to 1998, we’re finally getting a fair shake on the measurement of our product on the web to know just how many people really are “coming back” each day.

I’ve been doing sports radio for 18 years. I have never read an Arbitron report that says we have more than 500 listeners. Most times, it lists us as the 52nd radio station in the market and sometimes we’ve fallen to ZERO listeners in their antiquated and useless monthly surveys. One local advertising agent has spent the past two decades calling us a “little station with a ‘cult’ following.” (After 18 years, nothing could be more insulting or further from the truth.)

And if you check the latest Arbitron numbers – we lovingly call them the “arbitraries” – you’ll see that once again NONE of you seem to listen to WNST.

☺

Yep, we’re back at “zero point zero” – kind of like Bluto in “Animal House.”

But to the amazement of everyone in the Baltimore media world, suddenly, we’re so far ahead of the pack in every WEB measurement that it defies all of the “millions of dollars of research” that Arbitron has invested in proving that places like WNST-AM 1570 and brands like WNST.net aren’t effective.

But somehow, we have well over 40,000 people in our sphere here in Baltimore (at least that’s how many we’ve been able to account for so far) and displaced local sports fans across the country who’ve been kind and trusting enough to give us their email, mobile number, Facebook or Twitter access. We’ve got over 10,000 on our registration to the website and more 12,000 in our Facebook sphere alone! And there are certainly thousands of other folks who just “lurk” in our sphere, reading but never commenting, registering or playing any of our games for cash and prizes. Just like the thousands of you who have been listening to WNST-AM 1570 for years and have never received a dairy to fill out.

Every day thousands of you are coming regularly to WNST.net – via our website, Twitter, Facebook or a myriad of other connections — for any of the variety of media and information we offer.

Against the marketplace over the past dozen years, WNST has been cheated out of millions of dollars of market revenue but the game is “fixed” — at least as far as radio is concerned. Arbitron’s reporting is so fundamentally flawed and skewed that it’d be laughable if it didn’t cause me to fire people and lose money on a measurement system that is so antiquated I find it hard to believe that anyone could take it seriously.

For the first 17 years of my radio existence and as recently as last spring, Arbitron was sending out a paper diary in an envelope with a stamp via snail mail and the USPS to various (and random) home mailboxes with a $1 bill (and later $2) inside asking you to fill out this form and return it so they could figure out what you’re listening to at home, at work and in the car.

Yes, in 2009, they would mail a few hundred of these out “arbitrarily” to Baltimore households a few times a year and almost $200 million of local advertising money was spent with this as “research.”

It is – and has always been – a complete joke in my humble opinion.

But every agency radio buy in this marketplace is predicated on this system and it controls nearly $200 million of annual local money.

Arbitron is the sole possessor – a monopoly if there ever was one – of the business of the radio industry. It’s false. It’s fake. Everyone in the industry knows it and acknowledges that this entire industry is still funded via this “cloud measurement” system of ratings.

Now they’ve graduated to “People Meters” at Arbitron, giving the folks in the radio business more back doors to cheat the system and falsify readings that begin with a flawed measurement system. In the industry, they’re called “PPMs.” I’ll just save my breath on the “science” of these things for a link here. That way you can make up your own mind.

Hmmmmmm??? I wonder which method is more accurate: a few hundred Arbitron diaries and PPMs doing random “drive bys” or the science of Google Analytics, which measures every click and interaction with a web site?

How about this as a simple, common sense proposition: I’m 41 years old and have listened to the radio my entire life – thousands and thousands of hours in Baltimore. From programming and producing WNST to the old WLPL, to B-104 to long nights of Jon Miller’s Orioles baseball and the dulcet tones of Phil Wood and Stan Charles late into the nights of the 1980s. I’ve been on the radio for more than 18 years, producing almost 250,000 hours of radio in my lifetime here in Baltimore. I’ve listened to more hours of Sarah Fleischer, 98 Rock, Mike Brilhart and Fran Lane than I care to admit. I listened to the Greaseman for thousands of hours in the 1980s. I listened to Howard Stern for 10 years in the 1990s.

I have NEVER, EVER been “counted” as a radio listener. I’ve never received nor filled out a diary. I’ve only seen one diary in my life, a few years ago, when a listener dropped by studio and asked me if I wanted him to “cheat” and say he listens all day, every day. (As it turns out, if he filled it out that way, Arbitron would discredit the diary and throw it out! How’s that for F%$#ed up? When a really passionate WNST listener actually gets one and is overzealous, it doesn’t it get counted!)

This isn’t as much an indictment of Arbitron – as a fundamental premise measuring radio listeners is like measuring clouds, it’s an IMPOSSIBLE medium to truly accurately measure – as it is an indictment of the businesses who still believe their fiction and make million-dollar decisions based on a few hundred diaries sent to a mailbox that I don’t even visit anymore.

So, if you were spending money advertising in 2010, how SHOULD you measure WNST.net?

As I stated earlier, we love honest competition and a level playing field. In radio, I’ve never had one.

I bought a little AM radio station on the right (or wrong? LOL) side of the dial for $1 million in 1998. If I had wanted to buy WBAL-AM in 1998 it would’ve cost at least $50 million. If I had wanted to buy 98 Rock it wouldn’t been at least $40 million. If I wanted to buy a TV station – say WBFF or WMAR – it would have been in excess of $100 million. And, if I had wanted to buy The Sun, it would have been several hundred million dollars.

Somehow – in 2010, in the only sphere that will ever matter again for eyeballs and the money of advertisers, the internet – we’re ahead of ALL of these entities (except The Sun) for tracking, registration, daily people visiting the site and the interactivity of social media on Twitter and Facebook.

The primary and fair-across-all-web-media measure system that we’ve used for the past two years has been www.alexa.com. We also can use Google Analytics. There are a variety of “web scientists” that will dispute the measurement systems of both of the aforementioned. (Not unlike my criticism of Arbitron.) And there are also systems of “pay for play” like Quantcast and Neilsen Net Ratings and plenty more you can research here.

The newest measurement system – real clicks, real traffic, real Google Analytics – have proven over the last year that WNST.net is the new market leader in covering real time sports in Baltimore. Arbitron (radio), Neilson (TV), Scarborough (print) reports – they’ve all been woefully unrepresentative of most industry brands if not a set of lies, damned lies and false statistics.

But here’s my reality as the owner of WNST.net even if you choose to dispute web science and legitimate, modern measurement statistics: every statistical tracking point – from registration to text service to Twitter to Facebook to daily traffic to Alexa – all point toward the same, inarguable conclusion. WNST.net is the fastest growing and most vibrant media website in the Baltimore community on a daily basis for sports

And as you can see at the bottom of every single page on our website, we do indeed invite you and encourage you to visit our competitors. We need them to work hard so it’ll make us better. We need them to continue to produce bad-to-mediocre corporate dog food for local sports media content so you know the difference between good and bad.

But right now, we’re not just giving them a run for their money or taking a few points off of their Arbitron numbers.

As of Feb. 1, 2010, we’re winning.

By a lot…

On a completely level playing field and method of of distribution, you can see it for yourself.

So, I’m sure you’re asking, what does that mean in terms of the future and the business of local sports media in Baltimore?

Well, no one really knows for sure. I’m going to try to address that on Friday. Things are changing so rapidly and the paradigm has been altered so seamlessly and quietly that anyone who calls himself an “expert” in this space is a liar. The truth: the medium hasn’t been in existence long enough for anyone to have a track record of success to deem anyone a prescient source for what’s in the crystal ball for the future of media in America.

But the media sources like The Sun and billboards and virtually every print medium who were just taking money from sponsors, agencies and businesses based on “number of eyeballs” is rapidly changing as well because now their customers and funders can all measure a return on investment – for better or for worse. The old advertising adage remains true: half of all of your advertising is wasted in traditional, dinosaur media. Now, with the web model, you KNOW what half is being wasted and that scares the hell out of just about everyone in the media world – agencies and media entities alike.

Have you picked up The Sun lately and seen how many ads there are in the printed edition? Like, NONE (outside of a few massage parlors) most days. That’s not a sustainable business model, which is why they’re in bankruptcy. The reason isn’t just the lack of integrity, content and distribution (that’s our theme of tomorrow’s blog) but the lack of proof of distribution and return on investment for the advertiser.

With the power of the internet, every click is registered, every story read is registered, every minute spent on every web page is identified, every subscriber is accounted for, every sponsor’s lead is justified. And every call to action can either be seen, acted on or ignored.

What you need to know is that the money of the advertisers is going to go to the world of the web where measurement of their message’s reach is self evident – not “guess-timated” or “diaried” or “sourced.”

So, today I thought I’d throw some hay makers as well as some facts your way about the immense growth of WNST.net over the past year on the internet using REAL stats, REAL hits, REAL verified data that indicates that you are not alone in using WNST.net’s many, many tools to make your Baltimore sports fan experience better.

If you want a “guesstimate” turn to Arbitron or Ray Frager’s old column in The Sun or the mindless, dinosaur data that most of our competitors are giving to businesses and marketing people to continue to steal money.

But, if you want inarguable facts, consider the following:

Here’s the Alexa report for TODAY. It’s based on a 90-day aggregate.

Baltimoresun.com 3,283

BaltimoreRavens.com 28,415

WJZ.com 45,932

WBALTV.com 46,287

WNST.net 65,743 (our highest number ever!)

Because this blog is already long enough, I won’t even bother to put anyone else — any TV or radio station or local entity here that are below us. You can research them on your own. Just go to www.alexa.com and have fun! Just rest assured, all of the rest are so far behind that putting their web traffic stats here would only serve to embarrass them.

Here’s the current chart path of WNST.net on Alexa over the past two years:

Our Twitter feed is the best and most referred in the market, our Facebook friends and the tentacles of all that represents about 12,000 people and we could brag about our 5,200 WNST Text Service subscribers (and these are all people who trust us with their mobile phone numbers). There are also thousands of you who are registered to our site, subscribed to our newsletter and playing our fantasy games as well.

Whether it’s real-time news, the text service, the Prize of Today, our blogs, our radio, our videos, our audio vault – we’re very happy that you love our company at WNST.net as much as we love Baltimore sports. And we really sincerely appreciate the interest and traffic and it helps us grow our company and feed our families.

Here’s one more nugget if you really want the post-graduate course on where the growth lies in Baltimore sports media: one of the greatest sports resources that is untapped is the female market.

Here’s a great example of what growth we’ve made in that area as a brand in Baltimore over the last 10 years. I’ve done three data surveys since 2000 – all as an “old man AM radio brand.” In every one of these, all of our demographics said that we were precisely 93% male and 7% female.

In 2010, here’s the data for our male/female ratio of our audience with a full-service web brand that comes into everyone’s home and mobile device with “level distribution”:

Registation is 82% male, 18% female
Facebook 68% male, 32% female
Twitter 72% male, 28% female

Our old stand-alone medium of AM 1570 radio was not as appealing to the female demographic for sports because its emphasis on rules, strategy, 3-4 defenses and salary cap talk wasn’t what women were really interested in during their afternoon drive time.

Women love sports. They just love it for a different reason than a 41-year old white guy like me who was born reading the standings, box scores and collecting Topps baseball cards with statistics on the back.

Women don’t want to discuss Hall of Fame credentials or compare Joe Flacco to Johnny Unitas. They just don’t!

There is a movement afoot to take advantage of what women DO love about sports: beefcake guys, tailgates, beer drinking, family gatherings, fantasy sports, gambling on games, water cooler talk that helps them communicate with the other men (and women) in their world who are interested in sports as well.

Oh, and if they want some information on the NFLPA or the collective bargaining situation, we can provide that, too.

But now we do it in the palm of their hands via WNST.net. No on some old-man AM radio station that powers down after dark and has to compete in the same medium with Lite 102 and Mix 106.5.

My bet says our current “State of Baltimore Sports Media” survey will show us to be at least 20% female as a medium. That’s a HUGE, HUGE increase in a core audience. This simple fact is also inarguable: women love the Ravens. The NFL marketing folks will tell you that the Ravens have the largest female fan base in the league.

And WNST.net is doing our best to serve the female audience with the same credible information that we were only offering on the radio just three years ago in a sphere where women didn’t feel as comfortable or welcomed in accessing the information.

We’re going start our own “Ladies of WNST” club in 2010 and start doing some fun outings for our female audience. I’ve been desperately trying to find a female personality who would be a great fit in our web model. Molly Dunham, my former boss at The Evening Sun, has politely declined my offer for participation. But she’s the best I’ve ever seen in Baltimore — hands down. If you’re not as good as Molly, don’t bother. I want a rock star, not a porn star. I want a sports analyst, not a jock sniffer. I want meat and potatoes, not meet and greet.

You need to be as a good as her — and that’s a high, high bar in my opinion!

(If you know of anyone, send her along! My email is nasty@wnst.net. We’ll also be doing another Coors Light King of Baltimore Sports Media competition this spring to find more young talent of any gender.)

If you’ve made it this far through my Opus on Baltimore sports media, chances are that you at least like and respect some aspect of what we do at WNST.net. (At least that’s a fair assumption given the time you’ve spent this week reading this series.)

So, you’re probably one of the ones who wants to HELP us get better. People always say the nicest things to me on the streets of Baltimore and when we do trips about “wanting to help.”

So, today I’m going to pull back the curtains on what you can do to help us (or any of our competitors for that matter):

Come to our website. Participate. Register. Play our games. Comment on our blogs. Write your own blogs. Subscribe to our blogs on RSS. Follow us on Twitter. And by all means, be our Facebook friend!

And when you’re considering buying an item in Baltimore, consider using our sponsors and visit their websites through our platform so we get the “credit.”

There’s nothing that helps us more when we go to sponsors to try to improve WNST.net than when you’ve been on our site participating in some way.

So, if you take nothing else out of this lengthy missive, here’s the biggest “secret” in the media industry. When you CLICK on WNST.net you help us stay in business, feed our families – and hopefully – GROW our business so we can serve you better.

If you like WNST.net, tell your friends. Share our content. Join our clubs and services. They’re all FREE – and in this day and age, what more could you ask for? Our sponsors pay for them to market you and we get to feed our families and you get the best, most authentic sports coverage in the marketplace anytime you want it.

We’re very, very serious about being the ULTIMATE resource in Baltimore sports media on the web. I’ve dedicated my life to it. So has everyone on my team at WNST.net.

So, while we’re winning in the only measurable stats that I believe, we’re still “losing” per Arbitron.

And let’s get this outta the way now: first things first, we don’t like “losing” at WNST. It’s one of our many “pet peeves” with the Orioles. Last place is unacceptable. Accepting any defeat is unacceptable.
It’s just not who we are.

We like to compete and we like to be measured properly.

But the tangible results and numbers don’t lie – WNST.net has usurped a wide swath of the market share via our web reach, content, accuracy and integrity.

Every radio station in the market is desperately trying to get you to go to their websites so they can show their “reach.” Well, it turns out, this hasn’t gone so well for virtually all of them because their product on the web sucks.

What they claim their audience is – and the actual impact that message has for an advertiser – is diminishing every day with many people reaching to the web and Facebook and Twitter for recommendations and advice and “leads.” In every facet of life, this is true.

EVERY single time you click on my website, you are measured. Almost EVERY time you listened to WNST-AM 1570 you were NEVER measured.

And, right now, more of you are coming to us. And we can prove it. It’s inarguable at this point.

Over the next few days we’ll discuss the changing climate of the local media and how the distribution of content and information has been forever changed by this wonderful medium known as the internet.

We’ve been asking you all week to JUDGE FOR YOURSELF what’s working for you, personally, in Baltimore sports media in 2010. Where do you go for your sports news, information and daily conversation?

Take the WNST “State of Baltimore Sports Media” survey here for a chance to win a 50-inch Panasonic HDTV…

Feel free to share this with a friend in your life who doesn’t listen to or read WNST.net. I’d love to know why they listened to Anita Marks or read The Sun instead of coming to WNST.net.

We want to make WNST better for you into the new decade and beyond.

And just like Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco, we DO ENCOURAGE you to visit our competitors! If we’re doing our job properly, you’ll be back – again and again.

And the more often you come back the better we can make the product.

Wednesday’s class: content and distribution and the level playing field of the world wide web.

Take the WNST Baltimore Sports Media Survey here…

Every day at my house in Dundalk, The Sun came in the morning and The News American came at night. (Even though both of my parents insisted on calling it “The News Post” – its earlier name from the 1950s.) I read the sports section, the news section, TV listings, played Wishing Well and read the goofy horoscope. I was — and still am at heart — a newspaper freak. I clipped mastheads when my family traveled in 1978 to Myrtle Beach, S.C. from every newspaper at every rest stop. They were easy-to-get 10-cent souvenirs at every Stuckey’s along the way!

My Pop subscribed to the Baseball Digest (we’d always get the almanac and stats books at the end of every year, which were like bibles in my house) and The Sporting News.

As a kid in the 1970’s, we were under almost communistic rule in regard to the flow of real information to the public in regard to sports or the business of sports. If the baseball owners – who were the kings of American sports, in that they owned the most valuable & well-marketed sports properties – didn’t want players to have free agency for 50 years, do you think they were interested in sports writers having free speech? (Just think about it…lol)

My flow of information was relegated to a few annual digests, The Sporting News and bubble gum cards. (One day I’ll write a book solely devoted to baseball cards, which have been a lifelong passion for me.)

Back to the basics: when you’re a kid from Dundalk in the 1970s you think “I read it in the newspaper – it MUST be true!” Or at least that’s what I thought before I had given any thought to the business aspects of the sports media world.

I’ve later come to realize that until Howard Cosell came along during my childhood and began to expose all of the nonsense in the sports world and the backrubs that the alleged “media” were giving the “jockocracy,” it was a world of marketing, hero-worship and ticket selling with very little regard for the facts about athletes or how the world works. It was pretty much like the World Wide Wrestling Federation – a land of make believe. You make up a story in the public relations department, get the writers to write about it, make your broadcasters talk about it during the games – and voila, Fruit Loops becomes part of the Mickey Tettleton legend!

I’m now 41 and I’ve spent every moment since I was 15 years old learning about, living in and adjusting to the world of Baltimore sports media. And with all of the knowledge and school-of-hard-knocks life lessons I’ve been taught, I’ve never read anyone who was more on-point, accurate and candid than Cosell.

To me, he’s the greatest sports journalist there ever was – and his credo of “telling it like it is” always resonates with me and while in some colleague circles it hasn’t made me popular, it has brought me the eternal gift of respect from those who know that I don’t need to sugarcoat the reality of a circumstance.

In Dundalk parlance, they know I’m not “bulls%^&*g” them…

If I’ve said it or written it over the years, it’s the truth. Like it or not, you’re getting what I really think and the background of facts and observations that justify my stance.

But, then again, I’m the only media member in the marketplace who doesn’t have a boss. I don’t answer to anybody and I don’t work for anybody else. No one can “fire” me. So, in many ways, I’m the only one who CAN tell you the truth. Sad, but true.

If you’re giving me the time to read this piece – or have ever tuned into any of my work since 1984 – I feel I owe you what I really think not just what “someone told me I should say.” And besides, it’s got my name on it. And the building and radio station and website all have WNST.net on them. So this week upon my departure from radio and into the fulltime world of social media and entrepreneurship, I’m going to set the record straight.

Since the 1980’s, I’ve gone on to work for all three daily newspapers as a kid, learning every nuance of the news, journalism, reporting, editing and protocol of the industry from the greatest cast of experts you could possibly imagine: John Steadman, Richard Justice, Ken Rosenthal, Tim Kurkjian, Buster Olney, plus dozens (if not hundreds) of other mentors, co-workers, colleagues and sports media personalities and business executives. I’ve been a sponge to all of their unending information, knowledge and advice. Much of this I’ll be using when I begin researching and writing my third book all this year on the history of Baltimore sports coaches and leadership and wisdom. I am hoping it will be the best piece of work I’ve ever done. I will pour my heart into it and hope that you buy it and share it. I’m hoping to have it available by Labor Day.

In the 1990’s I created a successful sports radio show that begat WNST-AM 1570 and the first all-sports radio station in Baltimore, all while being nationally syndicated on One on One Sports and Sporting News Radio for three years while acting as an affiliate and have now successfully owned and operated all aspects of WNST since 1998.

I have seen firsthand every change and every nuance of the sports media industry from television to radio to newspapers to magazines to the internet. From the sports and ownership side, to the players’ side to the business side of the media world, I’ve made this industry and my passion for this city and its teams my life’s work. The business of sports and media has been my life and my focus for as long as I can remember.

The history of the media before I came along is a tad bit fuzzy, but it’s pretty clear the 1940’s and 1950’s were the era of the sportswriter and radio broadcaster. That’s where folks became sports fans by listening to sportscasters paint the excitement on the radio and then became inspired to go to a baseball game at old Oriole Park or take in a Colts game on 33rd Street or bet a few races at Old Hilltop.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, local television at 6 and 11 gave you highlights, scores and late race results and the local anchors (Jack Dawson, Nick Charles and Vince Bagli were the Big Three when I was indoctrinated) were the local heroes and most significant voices because of their community reach. Remember, the nightly TV local news didn’t even exist until the time when the Colts began their late 1950s run. It was a new world, really. They all we’re good-looking chaps who made big six-figure contracts, read ads for sponsors, hosted local chicken dinners for civic groups and stood on the field/court/rink during the 6 o’clock news and helped sell tickets and enthusiasm. For the most part, they were cheerleaders, really for local sports.

Just rent “Anchorman” if you care to know more…

In the 1980s and 1990s (when I came along) sports columnists at the newspaper and radio hosts were the only ones with a voice, the ability to “commentate” on the issues, strategy, etc. While Bagli could barely throw a mere one-liner zinger during his newscast, a guy like Charley Eckman could opine for hours on the radio about a subject and John Steadman could write a nice, meaty opinion piece in the paper with more punch and effectiveness.

The “journalists” at the newspapers and the guys covering the beats were taught to have the highest morale ground so as to stay “neutral” – as though having any emotions toward the games they were covering would be evil. Any opinion in a game story in The Sun would be sheer blasphemy in the world I was raised on Calvert Street in the 1980s.

“No cheering in the press box” was the way I was taught and the way it still is across America in the uptight media world. But of course, underneath their breath, every sportswriter I’ve ever met is cheering for SOMEONE during a game. For most of the lazy ones (and that encompasses a large percentage) it means whatever is easiest that allows them to keep their job in some town that they’re renting or using to pad their resume, eat free meals in the press box and turn in an expense account when it’s all over. Of course, in the new economy of 2010 those days of Marriott points and frequent flyer cards are gone forever for the rank-and-file sportswriter.

The most significant discovery I had working from 1984 through 1992 at the three local newspapers was the realization that none of these sportswriters really liked or even knew a lot about sports. I was always astonished at how beat writers of teams didn’t know the most basic history and background of the franchises they were covering. Some didn’t even know the rules of the games let alone where to put a quote or a fact. But most them did have one thing in common: they loved to bitch more than they liked to work.

It always boggled my mind that a TV station would recruit someone from Albuquerque or a local newspaper would recruit a writer from Seattle or a radio station would look for a naked girl from Miami to fulfill job openings in a passionate, hometown city like Baltimore.

I’ve said this for 18 years as I’ve built this iconic Baltimore sports media brand called WNST.net – I never, ever intended on having a career in radio. My whole background and passion was built in writing and editing and news judgment. It’s purely accidental – blame it on Kenny Albert, Paul Kopelke or Jim Ward — that I wound up building a personal brand in radio.

But, in 1992, radio was the greatest place in the world for a guy like me and the only one available that allowed me to do what I do best – research a story, tell you the facts, then give my very well-informed opinion. After all, I thought, I really DID know more about Baltimore sports than any of these other buffoons and I could prove it every afternoon. I had forgotten more about the Orioles, Colts and Terps than any of the other local media members and I could converse with people 50 years older than me and learn from them.

It gave me the ability to be long-winded (which I enjoy) and thorough and investigative and conversational. And it was fun! I loved learning the business of marketing, selling, advertising and the pursuit of dreams in being an entrpreneur. Being around sports and building my radio show and WNST in the 1990s was so much fun that I honestly long for those days in many ways when it simpler!

But being the only “independent” in the radio world, I didn’t have to “hide” my joy that the Orioles were winning or my disgust when the Terps were losing. And once the Ravens came to town, there was no way for me to hide my joy about having an NFL team here again, which still strikes me a true miracle every day of my life. For anyone who remembers the expansion process and poor Herb Belgrad it doesn’t take much to view the Ravens as some sort of divine act of God for Baltimore, especially considering the slaughter of the baseball team here over the last 15 years.

But before the Ravens came, the first few years on the radio I would always hear the demons of the editors at The Sun telling me to “not be a fan.” They told me it would wreck my career telling people that I wanted the Orioles to win or “cheerleading” as they liked to call it.

And a lot of those people I worked with really didn’t love sports, which I thought was kind of sad.

When I left The Sun on Jan. 15, 1992, I turned to radio to feed my 7-year old son and learned the sales, marketing and promotional aspects of this business from Paul Kopelke, who still does a bunch of our sales and radio work here at WNST 18 years later. Kopelke is solely responsible for keeping me on the radio and giving me an opportunity to pursue my dream as a local sports aficionado and entrepreneur.

Even though I was as big of a sports fan and expert as you’d find in 1992 and I was honed with all of the old-world journalism skills taught by some incredible people, the only sports radio I had ever really listened to was an occasional Phil Wood 10 p.m. show on WCAO or WCBM in the 1980s. My Pop listened to Charley Eckman in the 1970s but I was too young to participate in sports radio listening at that point. I was far more likely to watch the TV news or read the newspaper than I was to listen to sports radio of any kind even though we listened to the games every night. I usually fell asleep before the post-game show, which my Pop fell asleep to most nights with his white transistor radio buzzing along with his wall-rattling snores.

The real reason I didn’t listen to local sports radio when I got older and was working at The Evening Sun in my teens? I thought the talent here sucked. Every once in a while when I was riding shotgun with Phil Jackman en route to the Capital Centre I’d tune into sports radio in both directions. Jackman was a junkie for it, hence the legend of the “TV Repairman.”

So, below, and for the rest of this five-part piece, think of me as a self-appointed “TV and Radio and Media repairman.” None of my observations or opinions are meant to be “low blows” or “cheap shots” or “personal attacks.” It strictly about what I know and what I see and hear and read when I consume the content provided buy the competitors in my industry.

Back in 1992 when I entered the “radio game” in Baltimore at WITH-AM 1230 with Kenny Albert as a sidekick, there were only two other shows in town. Stan Charles was on 10-1 on WCBM. And “Sportsline” was on WBAL from 6 to 8 p.m. with Jeff Rimer.

I thought Stan Charles was awful. I felt that Jeff Rimer was like a sick joke. He knew NOTHING about baseball and talked hockey in a market that didn’t like hockey. And Benny The Fan and the older guys sat around talking about boxers from the 1950’s who weren’t relevant or interesting. No offense to Rex Barney, who was a sweet old guy, but I never really enjoyed listening to his radio show. It made old-fashioned seem old-fashioned.

Phil Wood, who was the only sports talk host I ever listened to and really enjoyed in the late 1980s, was sort of on and off the radio in those days. Other than his geeky fascination with the Washington Senators, he was a pleasure to listen to and well-informed about baseball.

In early 1992, I got into this radio thing by sheer accident. I NEVER wanted to be a “radio host” or be associated with radio, really. To this day, I’m still not a sportstalk listener to anything beyond my own product because quite frankly I’m not that fascinated with anything I hear. I know how little most of the competitors know about sports and life and business and strategy and coaching because I’ve talked with them in private conversations for most of my adult life. The only guy I ever get into even reasonably interesting and heated conversations about these subjects with is Peter Schmuck, who I think is a great guy. I also think Mark Viviano is a great guy, if that matters?

As a sports talk show host, I always felt like I needed to know more about sports than anyone else. It was the sole job description and as a fan and a young reporter, I thought that just meant the game strategy, which is only a small part of the bigger picture in 2010. I’ve met a lot of “bartender” sports radio people over the years. They are what they are. They generally know nothing about the cap, the agents, the money, the TV/marketing deals, the lifestyle of the modern athlete, the philosophy of leadership, coaching, strategy, etc. And they certainly have no clue about the business aspects or the internal etiquette of how the game is played behind the scenes.

In general, they’re glorified bartenders. No offense, but I know a LOT more about sports and business and how this works than just about anyone in Baltimore, which is why you’re reading this right now. I’ve dedicated the last 26 years of my life to this business, career and Baltimore sports.

Here’s a mini-sampling of the topics that need to be fully understand to be a competent sports media “expert” in 2010:

Television. Revenue. Sponsorships. Old media. Multimedia. New media. Newspapers. Radio. Contracts. Unions. Drafts. Rules. Grudges. Drama. Law. Jurisprudence. Ticket sales. Suite sales. Players vs. Ownership reality. Owners meetings. Commissioners. Public relations. Egos and image. Wives and parents and families. Agents. Salary caps. Ettiquette. Scouts. Personnel directors. Coaches. Assistant coaches. Chaplains. Trainers. Strength coaches. Wealthy owners. Rival leagues. Cheerleaders. Business of sports.

Oh, and that doesn’t even include dealing with the most ignorant and abusive fans, most of whom know very little about how all of this works and rely on guys like me to educate them without insulting them.

You have to know about ALL of this at a high level for me to have any respect for you or to listen to you on the radio or to read your writing or observations on the web. To borrow a phrase from my Pop in Dundalk, “If you don’t know about these then you don’t know s&%t about sports.”

Oh, and then there’s the actual games themselves. And strategies and breaking down a 4-3 defense and explaining Cover 2. Or discussing the Hall of Fame merits of Roberto Alomar or Shannon Sharpe? Or why a manager is pulling a pitcher or pinch-hitting late in a game?

Doing sports radio or writing intelligently about these issues isn’t something you can fake. You either know it, or you don’t. Ask any of the contestants in any of the “So you wanna be a sports media expert” contests that I’ve held whether I’m coy about imparting the kind of wisdom necessary to do sports radio at a world-class level. I’ve handed some of our contestants a 20-question survey that has befuddled them and would still leave Anita Marks’ head in a swirl. It takes me roughly 5 minutes to find out whether you’re full of manure. And much like American Idol auditions, I instantly become the Simon Cowell and the contestants become quite irate when you tell them they’re not qualified to work at WNST because they can’t even name the defensive coordinator of the Ravens and they expect me to make them an overnight $100,000 a year radio star.

But this has evolved over the last 20 years as the medium has moved from bartenders with good recall doing sports radio to the entire knowledge of the sports world becoming available on a google or wikipedia search from a mobile device.

The days of doing “Stump The Schwab” or “Trivia Monday” are over. Before the internet, many sports talk show hosts could take the easy out on a slow day and do a “game show” format where the callers call in to answer sports questions to show they’re smarter than the host. Or “What’s your favorite sports movie?” theme day.

Now, it’s much more issue-based, time-sensitive and storytelling based and if you don’t have your facts together and your background isn’t rooted more deeply than your audience, you’ll be instantly outed as a charlatan and flogged the way Anita Marks was here for the past four years.

All of this brings us to 2010 and the current state of Baltimore sports media and where you’re getting your local sports news these days via non-web, terrestrial means.

Print, as a medium, is in rapid decline of distribution and relevance. The Baltimore Sun has gutted its entire sports operation, leaving an overworked and demoralized mini-staff who are all in major job search mode knowing the next set of firings are coming. In my opinion, the business model for Press Box and its ilk is so flawed as to be incomprehensible – that includes Baltimore Magazine and City Paper as well as B and any other printed product you can name. Cost of distribution and delivery are high, timeliness of news is woeful, ability to prove a return on investment for advertisers is all but impossible without a coupon element.

Local television news, as a medium, is a dinosaur when your news, sports and weather are “on demand” from your mobile device whenever you want them at places like WNST.net. The four local TV news stations put zero emphasis on sports and give their anchors two minutes a night with no room for analysis or commentary. Is anyone really running to Mark Viviano or Gerry Sandusky at 6 o’clock to get sports news in 2010? WMAR has all but eliminated sports and news from its operation.

So, by default, sports radio – first on the AM and now on the FM side of the dial — has become a holding tank for the opinions and urgency of sports news in old-world media. And sports radio has now become the medium they all seem to want to pursue in an effort to capitalize on the passion and profit of sports and the best use of their FCC licenses.

There are a few different ways to do sports radio and as we’ll witness down in Fort Lauderdale all week for the Super Bowl, they’re all a “local” concern. Most of the big city sports talk stations have tables, representatives and live programming coming from Radio Row this week. Guests, celebrities, strategy, Hall of Fame and collective bargaining issues will rule the airwaves across the country all week.

Every one of them – other than WNST.net — have one thing in common: they’re all owned by corporations with stockholders and affiliate strongholds in other markets and using brands like ESPN and Fox to give them something believable to sell in their “faux” hometowns.

They all have an “expert” program director from “another market” and they’re all in one way or another connected to or a mouthpiece for Clear Channel, CBS, Hearst, Fox, ESPN, ABC or some corporate subsidiary.

The best example of this awfulness is right here in Baltimore with 105.7 “The Fan.” Infinity and CBS Radio had literally run out of ideas for what to do with an FM FCC license after trying oldies, alternative rock for kids, Guy Talk, Political Talk and various hybrids without getting ratings or making money. They even managed to destroy the vaunted WHFS brand, an empire that saw 80,000 kids come together at one place every summer. Instead, they now give us the likes of “Jack” and “Mix” and “Lite.”

The guy who runs CBS Radio’s local empire is Bob Phillips. If I’m the famous loudmouth from Dundalk who runs “the little AM radio station” then Phillips is the invisible country club “guru” who thought putting Anita Marks on the radio in Baltimore was “good programming.”

In radio parlance, sports is “a good biller” and it supports their corporate habit of doing broadcast business “flagship” deals with the local sports franchises — so after agreeing to a “muzzle/backrub” deal with Peter Angelos and the Orioles in exchange for exclusive content for a team that had then mustered 10 consecutive years of losing and bad civic goodwill, CBS Radio again flipped the format at 105.7 FM about 14 months ago and their “programming expert” Phillips and a guy from Pittsburgh named Dave Labrozzi made a concerted effort to hire every old, white guy who had ever been on the 11 o’clock news as “fresh” sports talk show hosts and experts. And why not? They all had a built-in brand of name recognition.

The local television sports talking head business has all but dried up financially and the remaining remnants of the local TV cast of the 1990’s — Mark Viviano (WJZ), Scott Garceau (WMAR) and Bruce Cunningham (WBFF) — have all “joined forces” like the Super Friends. The rumor is that Steve Davis (former WBAL and WBFF) will be joining them more often as well now that Anita Marks has departed.

Their biggest resource for marketing is the corporate synergy that CBS (both WJZ on the radio and TV side) has formed with MASN and Peter Angelos and the Orioles, making for the biggest nationally corporate branded eunuch in the history of Baltimore media. And make no mistake about it, if you want to talk about media in Baltimore and free speech and facts, look no further than the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos and the “trickledown effect” of intimidation politics and money in the media.

We’ll address this “who is sleeping with whom in media” at length on Thursday – it’s its own Iliad or Opus of its own and The Sun is on it as well – but rest assured censorship and sports franchises and rights fees and flagship status and sponsorship deals are massive credibility issues in most free-thinking places but the media is so “bought off” here that it’s only a topic allowed for discussion in the community by WNST.

As for other sports radio programming in Baltimore, WBAL-AM 1090 fired its main sports talk anchor (Steve Davis) a year ago and despite its obvious sports connections as the Ravens Radio rights holder and the synergy of WIYY-98 Rock’s ultra loyal hometown crowd (and I’m on of those people, by the way, who has a lifelong crush on Sarah Fleischer and a lifelong fan and friend of Mickey Cucchiella), they’ve been unable to make it a financially viable vehicle because their programming has been so awful that no one wants to listen to it. Plus, it’s really a “break” in their format and they don’t have enough interior experts who anyone likes.

And on Sundays, live football play-by-play on radio is really a bit for the geriatric set to begin with in 2010 – anyone who really cares about the game winds up watching it on television and I see less radios at the games now than ever in the stands. Plus you can be watching play-by-play action on your phone or monitoring your fantasy stats or a myriad of other different forms of action (including WNST’s Twitter feed or our live Purple Haze chats) to augment your enjoyment of a Ravens game.

WBAL has tried to use The Sun’s sports staff to man its Ravens coverage but the mundane sound and looks and observations of “old world” radio and sportswriters just aren’t working. And, as I will try to express over the next few days, it’s really not about the programming, hosts or the listeners. Sports radio – and local sports media in general – has become a sponsor-driven vehicle.

It really IS about the money!

If the sponsors aren’t getting a return on their advertising investment, none of these companies will exist for very long. At the heart of the bankruptcy issues with The Sun and other local newspapers in other markets isn’t just the deterioration of their content and medium and reach, it’s the sheer lack of proof that the advertising is being distributed at all. Not to mention a return on investment for the buyer. (This will be addressed later in the week as well.)

There’s also a sports operation at AM 1370 where Rob Long and Jerry Coleman hold fort around that other Baltimore lover, Jim Rome (the biggest fraud in the history of sports journalism) at Fox 1370. They came in and stole my afternoon show and agreed to put Rome on middays to get the “Fox” designation, which quite frankly was worthless to WNST. Honestly, I haven’t spent five minutes listening to them over the past 15 months so I can’t tell you much about what they’re doing. No one ever comes up to me or Facebooks me or tells me that they listen to AM 1370. I’m sure some do, but as I said, I don’t listen to shows where I don’t learn anything of significance or I’m not supremely entertained.

Up until now, I’ve simply discussed the past and present condition of sports media entities in Baltimore. It’s a leaky boat at best and corrupt relationships and censorship and money are all involved as I’ll outline later in this series..

But all that is changing and the world is becoming more transparent in 2010 — hence this series and these concepts and our WNST Baltimore Sports Media Survey that I’ll be outlining all week.

If you don’t read another word in this very verbose series over the next week, just remember this: THE FUTURE OF SPORTS JOURNALISM IS ON THE INTERNET!

And in tomorrow’s blog I’ll outline the measurement systems that prove that WNST.net is the new market leader in covering real time sports in Baltimore. Arbitron, Neilson, Scarborough reports – they’ve all been a set of lies, damned lies and statistics.

With the power of the internet, every click is registered, every story read is registered, every minute spent on every web page is identified, every subscriber is accounted for, every sponsor’s lead is justified, every mention of your brand and links are measured by Google.

What you need to know is that the money of the advertisers is quickly migrating to the world of the web where measurement of their reach and clicks are self-evident – not “guess-timated.” Or “arbitrary” in the case of Arbitron.

So, while the rest of the players in Baltimore are caught up in doing radio, filling TV time or making 11 p.m. deadlines for their printing presses in Port Covington, at WNST.net we’re filling your Twitter and Facebook and email and text with the instant information you really want and we’re here for you day and night to discuss all of the relevant local sports issues without being “bought off” or forced to censor our thoughts, opinions, reactions or commentary.

It’s almost mind-boggling to me that anyone with half a brain would turn to most of our competitors for an honest analysis of anything given their inability to criticize anything in the Angelos kingdom for fear of retribution or having their media credentials revoked or being “left off the buy,” which is poison to the ears of Bob Phillips, Jay Newman, Ed Kiernan and their ilk. So, they get in line and “play the game.”

Mock word outta Ch. 13 is that their poobah, Newman, was going to force the secretaries and the cameraman all down to the WJZ-TV booth at Orioles Fan Fest for autographs and pictures last weekend under strict corporate orders to show “CBS loyalty” to Angelos and the orange birds, who ring their spring cash register in the evenings when the car ads on the local news dry up.

And the accountability of their media lies has the same accountability as Angelos himself, who sits behind it all here in the Baltimore media and never has to answer a question about anything from anybody legitimate while he prints money from the public’s cable TV bills and pockets it via the MASN deal.

Oh, and the fact that he’s single-handedly slaughtered the Orioles franchise, fractured its fan base and left the city for dead on game nights except when the Red Sox and Yankees fans surround the city in the most glaringly and inarguable display of the decay of the civic pride in Baltimore’s oldest treasure.

The latest chapter will be outlined on Thursday when I profile the Hearst-CBS war, but rest assured it’s pretty ugly behind the scenes with those two corporate structures with Ravens and Orioles rights and censorships and player marketing contracts and exclusive content deals that squelch free speech by “media partners.”

And across all of the media in Baltimore, fact checking and accountability are not strong suits across the marketplace.

Last month, CBS Radio spent three days promoting an “exclusive” interview with Brian Billick. That’s almost laughable, considering Billick is a part-owner of WNST.net and appears on our airwaves three times a week.

Jerry Coleman and Anita Marks have both held “mock press conferences” where they ask the question to the coach only it’s an answer from a press conference audio clip. (That’s just weird!)

And then there’s the actual question of “crediting” sources when stories are broken. Jamison Hensley of The Sun thought we “stole” information from his Twitter account about the Ravens wearing black uniforms last month and sent out a series of vitriolic, childish Tweets when we didn’t steal any information. The Ravens PR staff released the information about five minutes after he sent it. We Tweeted it. No drama. No theft. No foul. We don’t steal at WNST.

Meanwhile, we routinely send out “WNST Texts” before The Sun has information on their website and I have never – not ONCE – seen “as first reported by WNST.net” on their website or newspaper.

But that’s all the behind the scenes drama and insider fodder for you, the sports fan in Baltimore.

All you really want as a Baltimore sports fan is good, fast, reliable information that you can trust.

In reality, everyone consumes media in a variety of ways. You might like one host or one writer or one voice in the marketplace but in reality you’ll always turn to a variety of places if you’re interested in seeing a wide swath of analysis. Competition is a good thing as I’ll outline tomorrow. It brings out the best in us all.

And the one thing that I’ve always respected in media figures is – like Howard Cosell – the ability to be straightforward, educated and no-nonsense in their information. It’s a basic premise at WNST that we give you the truth. And we try to make rational, logical arguments for our position. And our hosts say what they think without fear or reprisal from their boss, owner or peers.

I assure you that in 2010 in Baltimore, you’re not getting that from ANY of our competitors.

With censorship being at the heart of the Orioles every move in the marketplace – from WBAL to WJZ, from The Sun breaking stories to The Washington Post breaking them in the heyday to the banning of 20-year veteran journalists from having a press pass at home games – controlling the message is at the heart of any “business arrangement” with Angelos.

Want proof? Want to see it in action?

Call Mark Viviano or Damon Yaffe on the air and ask them what they think about the Orioles’ past 13 years of ineptitude and try to get a real opinion. Ask Scott Garceau how he feels about the deterioration of the franchise that he formerly was the flagship TV announcer for back in the 1980’s? Ask Garceau about how he feels about the way Brooks Robinson has been treated by the Orioles current ownership? Ask Bruce Cunningham to express his private feelings about the Orioles? I’d say, “Ask Gerry Sandusky” but he’s too busy to take your phone calls.

And then you tell me if you think they’re being honest with you when you get an “on microphone” answer.

Of course these are all guys who received six-figure contracts for going on the 6 and 11 o’clock news and reading scores over highlights for two minutes a night. Their hair and their voices were FAR more significant than their insights, opinions or analysis circa 1992.

Now, they have to actually “take a side” as they do many hours of sports radio each day and that’s something they CAN’T do. At their core, these are all guys who are afraid of offending people and becoming unpopular. As I’ve found out over the years, if you speak your mind on ANY issue, you’re going to piss people off. It’s just the way it is.

Hey, they have families to feed. I get it. I even respect it to some degree. They can’t afford to be honest because they wouldn’t be allowed to keep their jobs. (I have audio of Angelos saying just that back in 1997 in regard to the firing of Jon Miller, which was passed off as a resignation. “That’s a fundamental principle,” Angelos bellowed. “Tell it like it us but keep your opinions to yourself.”)

I honestly don’t know what is ethically worse – the fact that they have to work as employees with personal brands under those conditions or the fact that they agreed to “go along with it,” especially from a guy like Garceau who I’ve always had so much respect for over the years and whom I interned with at WMAR in 1992.

Garceau, in one of his Uncle Scott moments, once said to me: “Nestor, you only get one chance to lose your credibility.” I remembered that last year when he saddled up next to Anita Marks in one of the most ill-fated pairings since “New” and “Coke” and effectively agreed to be a “silent partner” with Peter Angelos after watching this city and the downtown area disintegrate over the last decade and a half. And this was coming from a guy who as a young reporter in Baltimore watched Mayflower trucks steal a decade of his love of football in his prime?

We’ve all had 15 years of joy taken away from us. NONE of these “journalists” ever say a word about it, do they? And none of them ever opine on someone like free speech and access for someone like me, who after 20 years of having a media pass has had it revoked for speaking the truth. That’s truly disappointing to me but “I get it.” I really do. I have a family to feed as well.

Ask Steve Davis what it was like to be at WBAL Radio during his time on TV Hill taking phone calls before and after Orioles games in their 10th straight losing season. He was ostensibly told to not take the “tough calls” from irate Orioles fans wanting to criticize the team or its management after another 90-loss season. Davis, as far as I could tell, found that unacceptable. Good for him!

Ask Yaffe how he really feels about the Orioles or how he felt prior to the CBS rights deal? Ask Viviano how the Orioles professionally treated him five years ago when WBAL had the rights? Ask Cunningham his private feelings about the Orioles and listen to him squirm as he tells you “what great people they are” in the hopes that maybe someday he’ll get a paycheck from them like he does for the Ravens as their game day announcer.

But it’s not just a sports radio thing.

Brent Harris has gotten “second class” treatment from the Orioles because he works for Comcast, which must be Greek for “Bin Laden” for Angelos. Highly respected WBAL Radio guys like John Patti had their passes held hostage by the Orioles public relations staff as well over the past three years since the nasty divorce between Angelos and WBAL and Comcast.

While I would say the guys at The Sun have been “soft” on criticism and investigative work to the damage that the franchise has caused the entire downtown business community, I also realize that they also have to go into The Warehouse and work every day as well and use Andy MacPhail as a source for information.

If you think ALL of these people haven’t noticed that I’ve been “banned” by the Orioles for free speech, then think again. Three years later – and almost 300 losses later – are you not astonished that ONLY people from WNST regularly criticize the Orioles?

I could go through the list of “media” members who work for MASN, but even their access is flawed because some of the stuff is so “sensitive” that they won’t even let Roch Kubatko break some of the stories because they’re not “positive” news. The website at MASNSports.com reads more like a public relations sheet for the Orioles and Nationals than anything resembling journalism. It’s a PR firm on the web, really. Just read Steve Melewski’s PR notes with the orange thumbprints all over them.

How are you going to get “the truth” from these people who have Angelos’ autograph on the right corner of their paychecks every two weeks?

You can even ask my “pal” Jerry Coleman about how he’s been treated over the years and he’ll tell you the only thing that sucks worse than my signal are the Orioles. But, like Mikey from the Life cereal commercials, he hates almost everything.

It’s almost comical – the inbreeding of the corporate entities and the personalities and who is employed by who and who you’re going to get a straight answer from when you call into a sports talk show on CBS’ The Fan 105.7.

But any lack of transparency of the dealings of Phillips and the Orioles disappeared when they moved to send Anita Marks onto television via MASN, which is owned by Angelos. So, that part has and will forever be a compromised mess for the integrity of all of the CBS Radio hosts. Throw in Amber Theoharis, Kubatko and the laughable, loveable cast of MASN’s baseball coverage including Tom Davis, Jim Hunter and Rick Dempsey, who’ve had to spin 30-3 losses into character-building endeavors over the years to the point where they’re a running joke, and you’ve got a “synergistic media entity” constructed as a eunich PR firm for the baseball team’s last place follies.

And of course, there’s Exhibit A for why our prime competitor sucks:

Anita Marks spent four years here, never saw a game of meaningful baseball and never uttered a disparaging word about the team. Word is the Angelos family liked her so much they wanted to keep her around on MASN, but apparently Phillips had heard enough of that train wreck and figures he can still salvage it through Garceau’s three decades of goodwill. We’ll see for how long Garceau wants to take four hours of phone calls a day? It just never seemed to me that he would enjoy doing sports radio. Or that I would never want to hear four hours of radio without a strong opinion from the host.

As for Marks and her departure – it was not just overdue it was wholly unjustified that she ever showed up in Baltimore. She also never bought a ticket to an Orioles game in her life and had no sense of the history of baseball in Baltimore yet spent four years defending the guys who wrecked baseball in our city. She also befriended a series of Ravens players and some of the on-air repartee was downright embarrassing, especially when she tried to cast some light on “knowing the game” from her perspective as a QB. Once I saw the Playboy spread and saw the “sex symbol” positioning of her marketing coming into Baltimore back in 2006, I knew what the whole thing was about.

But the bottom line is that she was a sick joke on the radio. She was wholly unqualified and it showed every day. If left alone in the studio taking phone calls, she would’ve perished much more quickly. What kind of sports talk show host is that?

But that’s the dog food that Peter Angelos approves and Bob Phillips and CBS Radio offers you and expects you to eat. And all of the hosts there have “checked off” on the implied muting of any criticism of the Orioles. That’s just a fact!

Somehow at 105.7 they’ve managed to pass off their hosts as having “strong backgrounds in Baltimore media” but they field a daily lineup of natives from St. Louis, Virginia Beach and Wisconsin doing daily sports radio. None of them ever saw an Orioles or Colts game as a kid in Baltimore. As far as I know, none of them has ever bought a ticket to a Baltimore sports event. It’s a job to them and if you spent any time around them you’d know that Baltimore sports is not their passion, it’s their vocation. It’s just different and I always prefer local.

And while I’m handing out my personal report card – again you can fill yours out here – I’m wondering if Gerry Sandusky has a sports voice or an opinion about anything outside of Republican politics? He barely qualifies as a “sports guy.” He gives John Harbaugh a backrub every Tuesday night on the radio but that’s about all I know of Sandusky’s thoughts.

Keith Mills is a guy who I have an immense amount of respect for and has battled some personal demons along the way. I don’t sense that his “voice” is a major factor in the WBAL model. And Stan White and Peter Schmuck are seemingly minor players at WBAL these days. No one ever talks to me or comments about anything they’ve heard on WBAL. Just a fact…

At some point if these “personalities” are going to cross the line back into journalism or analysis, their corporate agenda can’t be to protect the guilty and praise the losses – especially when there have been 13 years worth of them.

So if these “pundits” are paid to opine – as I’m doing today, simply telling you what I honestly think — and you KNOW you’re not getting an honest assessment with them because of the deals their bosses have made, why the hell would you listen to them?

And I want to make this clear: I’m not questioning their “personal integrity.” I’m questioning the integrity of their entire establishments and institutions that they are paid to protect and how it’s still mind-bogglingly passes for “journalism” or “commentary” in 2010.

It’s not. Most of these people I have no “personal” agenda with in any way. I just don’t like or consume their work and when I do it always leaves me kinda chilly or non-plused. And, really, they are just a part of a big, corporate machine. They all have bosses who are desperate to make numbers and payrolls and the economy has devastated the entire industry over the past 24 months.

I have backgrounds with all of these people. Most of them I honestly like and am extremely cordial with in any environment. But that doesn’t mean that I want to watch, read or hear their work. Many of them don’t read my blogs or they think my show or site or opinions suck as well.

I don’t expect them to like me personally or consume WNST products, either. But maybe they’d actually learn something if they did?

Also, many of the marketplace’s weekend hosts and off-hours producers worked for me at WNST, some leaving with a variety of interesting disgruntled former employee grudges that they love to opine about on the internet and at the water cooler. Some of it is so outlandish that it quite frankly alternately saddens and amuses me but always rewards me for not having them under the WNST umbrella anymore.

(One day, you can ask Spiro Morekas to tell you the one about “Baltimoron” or “Lion Heart” but I’ll leave that story for him to tell…)

God bless them. Everyone of them now have a press pass in this business because I gave it to them and gave them a shot to fulfill a dream. Casey Willett, Rob Long, Ken Weinman, Jeremy Conn, Phil Backert, Aaron Wilson and anyone I’ve left out — I honestly wish them all the best in continuing that dream and I know I did my best to make it work for them at WNST. I bet ON all of them, not against them. In my opinion, some weren’t what we needed to move forward in an era where daily education and training on the internet and new media calls for a deeper skill set and a deeper understanding of the world of local sports media and what it takes to create money to pay the salaries of our staff. I have a limited budget and I’ve done my best to put the best programming and content together possible, kind of like how Ozzie Newsome puts the Ravens together with a salary cap.

It’s not personal. It’s business. I’ve ALWAYS been a media critic because being in the media is all I’ve ever wanted to do. Today, I’m simply just writing what I think. Trust me, I hear enough around the media water coolers to know exactly what they think of me, WNST, my hosts, etc.

“Their signal is too weak…”

“Two tins cans and a string…”

“WNST has 10 listeners…”

“They have no Arbitron ratings…”

Those stories and lies have been told for years.

This is a fact: In 2010, MORE of you are getting your sports content, news, opinions, commentary and social media at WNST and WNST.net than anywhere short of the Baltimore Sun. So, at this point, we’re “No. 2” and like Avis, trying harder.

And it’s apparent. We’re beating them every day and THEY know it and basically hate us for it. (As they should, my competitive spirit says! I don’t expect them to like the fact that we grow every day!)

But this is how I see it. This is what I really think.

Now, I want to know what YOU really think.

We’re offering you a WNST State of Baltimore Sports Media survey here and a chance to win a 50-inch Panasonic HD TV for filling it out honestly and thoroughly.

Tell us if we suck. Tell us if we’re great. Or even anywhere in between. You can also write comments below if you think I’m wrong.

Beware: all of the information can and will be used to make WNST.net better.

Part Two is tomorrow: Alexa? Who is She?

It’s more of a mini-series than a blog. It’s designed to separate facts from fiction of media past, present and future. It’s taken me about 26 years of living it and now that WNST.net is the No. 1 most-visited sports website in the region, I think it’s time that I’ve said a few things that need to be said about the state of this business and how much “times have changed.”

It’ll be the true story of life in the 2010 world of Baltimore sports media that Ray Frager — a former boss and media “critic” of mine at The Baltimore Sun who publicly hated, doubted and discarded my show and my brand and my expertise, information and business for more than a decade with his witticisms and a keen “out of town” perspective about Baltimore sports media – never got around to telling you about because he never took the time to understand the business, politics and measurement of local sports media.

He didn’t even understand what the Arbitron ratings represented but he knew how to parrot out the statistics, which we’ll prove next week are not even remotely accurate if not outright lies! But we all know that once the lie gets told once, it gets repeated a thousand times.

If you’re one of those who keeps up with local business (in other words, one of the “smart” ones), this will be an eye-opening look at what’s happened to the integrity in the Baltimore sports media over the last 25 years since the passing of the likes of Jim McKay, Chris Thomas, Charley Eckman and John Steadman – and the “moving on” of Frank DeFord and dozens of other writers and broadcasters to a national position from Dan Shaughnessy to Nick Charles from Ken Rosenthal to Tim Kurkjian to Buster Olney to John Saunders and on and on — who were the pioneers over the last 30 years and who left legacies that I still chase every day of my life.

If you’re one of those who doesn’t understand “the business of media” and you can’t possibly comprehend how happy the Orioles’ ownership is to be making $40 million in profit while the stadium and downtown sits empty and they lose 98 games every year – all while OWNING the pockets and voices of most of the traditional media in Baltimore, well, honestly – this is all going to go a little over your head. You might want to skip it for fear of actually learning something that resembles the truth.

(It’s kinda like the Rodney Dangerfield scene in “Back To School” where he teaches the “real” way business is conducted not the way they teach it formally in college! You either get it, or you don’t. And if you do want to “get it” and be educated, I’m here to give you a Master’s dissertation at 41 and after living this reality of Baltimore sports media over the last 26 years.)

If you’re one of those who can somehow defend the actions, business practices and stewardship of Peter Angelos and the Orioles over the last 13 years, then you’ll probably find a way to refute the facts of the next week in regard to statistical data bearing out that WNST.net is fastest-growing media company in the state of Maryland. You might even be foolish enough to not realize that all of the employees of MASN, CBS Radio, WJZ-TV and Pressbox ostensibly work for him.

But as Forrest Gump so boldly put it: “Stupid is as Stupid does…”

I can only state the facts and back them up with evidence and empirical data – just like Steadman and my father taught me. After that it’s up to you…and we even let you write and encourage you to write what YOU think here on WNST.net. The only thing we ask is that you spell your name correctly and take accountability for your thoughts and words.

Thus is the beauty of the internet and my intoxication with it: free speech in an open and shareable platform in a world that embraces individuality and excellence. It’s a great, magical time to be alive for a guy like me with a brand like WNST.net and the walls of corporate media domination rapidly falling in every corner of the world.

Hence, I’m hosting my final week of radio next week in Miami after hosting my final “in studio” show as a daily host today. After taking a four-year hiatus from daily hosting, I’ve been back on the air for the past 55 weeks for a variety of reasons and I’m delighted to be once again returning to my very happy life “behind the scenes” building the business of WNST in 2010 and beyond.

If anything, over the past year the internet has allowed me to be MUCH closer to my audience and Baltimore sports fans and I don’t look at “leaving radio” as anything more than “moving mediums” to the internet, where I can be in your ear as much as you want me. And WNST is in your pocket everywhere you go if you have a mobile device.

Don’t worry: I’ll never stop talking Baltimore sports.

I’ll be more accessible than ever — blogging, doing commercials, selling advertising, making videos, doing roadtrips, having fun in writing a book this year, gabbing in social media, hosting parties and doing the most important work of all – the business development of WNST.net as we grow into the new decade as the unquestioned market leader in Baltimore sports information in the only medium that matters moving forward – the internet.

And it’s my solemn vow to use what I know to educate our fans from this point forward in all aspects of Baltimore sports, including the business of local sports of which I’m an expert in the field of local marketing, journalism and the media business. No one in Baltimore can match up with the way we cover sports on the web.

In the “old world” that I was raised in here in Baltimore, it was the radio, television and newspaper. Now – instead in the Jetsons world of 2010 — I’ll be using the audio, video and blog components of WNST.net to give a reality-based look at life in Baltimore sports.

As such, next week each day we’ll present, discuss and opine about the whole gamut of Baltimore media:

Part 1 – “Baltimore’s sports media lineup” — We’ll identify the frauds in the media & some feelings will be hurt here…

Part 2 – Alexa – “Who is She?” The little retold lie about WNST having 10 listeners…

Part 3 – Content & Distribution – “Where do you get your Baltimore sports news & info and why?”

Part 4 – “Who are the biggest corporate whores in Baltimore sports media?” In other words: “Who is for sale, and who can you trust?”

Part 5 – “What is the future of Baltimore sports media?” What is catching your eyes & ears these days?

You might be shocked by some of this information. You’ll certainly be surprised at how a lot of this local sports media business works and how dramatically it’s changed. And you won’t be shocked to find out how unpopular it is amongst our competitors that “little WNST” is crushing the
“traditional big boys” in the new world of new media and social media, which makes them hate me even more.

That’s why they take away my press pass at Orioles games and none of my other “colleagues” even acknowledge how wrong it is. That’s why they keep telling the lies about signal strength and Arbitron numbers and lack of distribution. And that’s why they keep refusing to acknowledge any of our events, charitable work in the community or impact on the reporting of breaking sports news in Baltimore.

But that’s OK. I’ve been breaking news stories in Baltimore for 26 years and for 18 years on the radio and I’ve never, ever ONCE seen The Sun write “As first reported by WNST.net”…

And at this point, I don’t really want that to change. I kind of get a kick out of it!

But if I tweeted every time we send out a text on a story that ISN’T on the website of The Sun or MASN or any other local web entity, I’d seem like a bragging ass. But isn’t that what they all do at the alphabet-soup world of corporate media?

“As first reported by ESPN…blah-blah-blah…”

(And if you’re one of the 5,200 on our Text Service, then you know how good it is without me telling you about it. And if you’re NOT on the service and JOIN OUR TEXT SERVICE NOW, you won’t be disappointed. It’s the best thing we do at WNST!)

So this purposely self-indulgent yet informative piece of journalistic truth and analysis will be an ode to Ray Frager, who was the King of Arbitron ratings without ever writing the truth about the “fictional data mining” that they’ve been doing a for a few decades. I’ll expose that and “People Meters” next Tuesday.

So, in Frager’s honor and honor of his blog – “Medium Well” — I’m dubbing this weeklong, “investigative” look as “Medium Well Done?”

Along with my long-windedness, arrogance and accusations, that’s really the question I’m asking you:

Is Baltimore media well done?

For the record, I don’t think so. And that’s why I love WNST.net so much! Because I think we’re the best! And we wake up and work our asses off all day, every day to make it that way. And it’s finally being realized in the real data, numbers, volume of real people who interact with the WNST brand every day in Baltimore.

Some people are going to get their feelings hurt, but I’m writing a Master’s thesis in how this all works – the business of local sports media in Baltimore circa 2010. Where’s it’s been, where it’s “at” and where it’s going…

I’ve dedicated my entire life – ask anyone who’s ever really known me — to building Baltimore’s ultimate sports information company every day of my life since Jan. 23, 1984 when I was “hired” as an intern for “SportsFirst,” a daily train-wreck of a business model newspaper housed by the Hearst Corporation. Honestly, it’s been a strange kind of destiny over the past 26 years since I walked into The News American as a 15-year old intern from Dundalk who couldn’t type, with a pregnant girlfriend, that the world has opened up on the internet to give a guy like me a chance to go toe-to-toe and now surpass “the big boys” and corporate whores who’ve for so long dominated and stilted the way we consume our information about sports in Baltimore.

The internet and the phone that is in your hand or pocket is the ultimate equalizer. EVERYONE has access to WNST.net from anywhere in the world where there is cellphone service. Every day more people find us — on Twitter, Facebook, Google, You Tube, etc. And our website is clearly the best in the market for technology, distribution of the sponsors who keep us in business and the timely distribution of content.

There’s no more having a “small signal” or the inability to instantly transmit information or need for a printing press, an FCC license or a TV antenna to break news or give analysis or to move people to action. And in our sphere here at WNST.net, the engine is powered by the people who care enough to be involved daily – the real Baltimore sports fans who power these teams and their financial ability to be sustained.

All the walls have fallen in traditional media. It’s only the old, white people on the country club golf courses who haven’t caught up. Sadly, that encompasses much of the local sports media world.

My inspiration to ignite Free The Birds in 2006 was the Berlin Wall and that wall fell, too. And just like one day the Orioles will be owned by someone who help them win again and they will be revered in the community instead of a source of annual civic shame and embarrassment, the walls of information and media around the local sports scene have fallen dramatically and the joke is on the establishment that doesn’t recognize that they can no longer control the information, spin the truth or mask the lies.

And some in the establishment are still playing the Marxist “We’ll control all state information” role like Baghdad Bob with the Orioles. That’s just stupid and will never work in a free society with tools like the internet and social media.

Over the next week I’ll be presenting an in-depth look at the current “status” of local media and the measurement systems that in the new world of new media will evaluate the size of an entity, the reach of an entity and the influence of an entity.

We’ll ask you who YOU trust with your news, information and where you get it and why you get it from them. I hope you share it with your friends because I’d love to hear from all sorts of Baltimore sports fans because we want to make WNST.net the best – period!

Three years ago, this would’ve been impossible – this website launch and the power and reach and immediacy of social media. But, now through the power of what until recently was referred to as your “phone” – now a PDA, Blackberry, Iphone, Palm or Droid – you have WNST.net with you everywhere you go and available anytime and anyplace you want it.

So much for “how far does your signal go at little WNST-AM?”

Well, it goes AROUND THE WORLD in the PALM OF YOUR HAND now!

How’s that for “power” or “reach”? It doesn’t sound like 5,000 watts anymore, does it?

So much for the days of people saying: “Hey Nasty, I love your radio station but I can’t get it at night.” Now, I just say: “Are you on our text service?” or “Facebook friend me” or “Follow us on Twitter” or drop me an email at nasty@wnst.net and we’ll rock your world with what we’re doing on the web at WNST.net.

In Indianapolis two weeks ago where we threw the biggest party in town and took four busloads of Ravens Maniacs to Irsayland, the biggest music to my ears was having people say: “Hey Nestor, I’m your Facebook friend or I subscribe to your text service or I read your blogs every day on my phone.”

Over the next week I will prove to you – beyond the shadow of a doubt – that we are the fastest growing media entity in the city of Baltimore or anywhere in the region.

Actually, we’re the ONLY “growing” entity in the marketplace across all of the terrestrial (or is it dinosaur?) media: print, television and radio.

And I’ll also show you why we STILL aren’t being acknowledged as the market leader in the one place it counts – the cash register. And that’s mainly because the dinosaurs who run the local ad agencies and the local teams still don’t fully comprehend or acknowledge the power of the internet, which is astonishing when you consider how much of everyone’s day in our world is consumed with information, email, text and social media on a video screen of some kind.

(And unless you’re my 90-year old mother, you’re involved in several or all of the aforementioned! How do I know? Well, you’re READING THIS ON THE INTERNET!!!)

And I didn’t need a TV signal, a sweetheart cable deal or a printing press to get it to you. I own an FCC license, but I probably didn’t even use that to find you!

WNST.net is building a local social media firestorm and creating a new kind of company in a new kind of space on the internet. Like any other new company in a completely new era of marketing, we’ll continue to feel our way through the process, doing some things well and others not so well.

And that’s where our WNST Baltimore Sports Media Survey comes in…

Unlike the Orioles of Peter Angelos, we’re accountable here at WNST.net. I own the place. I’m out in front. I’ll take your questions. I’ll take your criticisms and try to improve what we do. I LOVE the pressure of the accountability of being great and being measured. I live for it! (Ask anybody who knows me…)

We don’t just think our product is the best in the marketplace, we think you think so too!

Beginning Monday, we’re distributing an extensive survey to all of our WNST.net users (new and old). It’ll be available all during the month of February. We’re giving away a 50” Big Screen TV to one lucky person who fills out the questionnaire in the hopes that you and all of your friends will take a few minutes to fill it out and tell us how we can make WNST.net better in 2010.

We’re very serious about trying to make our company the best in the market. We really ARE the company that will take your advice because we’re building this web community for the people of Baltimore who love sports.

But, more than any of the other corporate whores who will be getting “outed” next week for their brazen lies, partnerships and duplicity – WNST.net will continue to be a place for an honest exchange of information.

We don’t ban free speech. We’re accessible and accountable for the news and information we dispense. We’re rooted in the community – rooted so deeply that 5% of all of our profits into perpetuity go back to the Living Classrooms Foundation thanks to Brian Billick’s involvement in ownership of WNST.net.

Here’s our mission statement, in case you missed it at the bottom of the site:

MISSION STATEMENT

To fully realize the potential of the vast audience our brand has acquired in Maryland over the past 18 years, WNST.net will be the dominant, honest voice in Maryland media by providing the “real” content of what’s happening in sports in our area.

We will deal with all of our listeners and sponsors with charity, benevolence, dignity and in the effort to educate and help sports fans in Baltimore better understand the big picture of sports so they can enjoy it even more.

We will be an advocate of all things Baltimore and Baltimore sports while keeping a keen “21st Century-oriented” approach to build a bridge between sports and its fans through our website, broadcasts and community activism.

Integrity in reporting and accuracy will be our calling card.

We will:

Educate fans

Serve our community

Promote Baltimore

Promote sports and how it shapes young people’s lives

Promote and support charitable endeavors

Help others make their businesses stronger via integrity-based marketing which will strengthen our community

Show Baltimore that we care as much about our hometown and our local sports as much as they do

Recognize that profitability is the key to survival for our partners, employees and sponsors

We’re not only “sports media” people here at WNST.net. We’re also fans — BIG fans.

If you’ve ever tuned in you know that WNST hosts are the “real deal.” Every host I have at WNST was a fan of Tom Davis and Vince Bagli and John Steadman and Charley Eckman before they got involved in the media side. We all had hosts, writers, commentators that we liked and disliked back in the 1970s and 1980s.

If WNST was originally dubbed, “The Station With Balls,” next week we’ll prove for sure that many of the other “trusted” sources in the marketplace are truly the old world/boys network media who are “ball-less” except for the fact that they carry the play-by-play of the ballclubs – or own the actual network — that no one listens to anymore and none of these media companies can figure out how to make money off of these broadcasts while they allow their “editorial” privilege to go down the drain like a useless infomercial of Baghdad Bob rhetoric and faux-sophistication.

You could say they give up their “balls” to buy other ones…

Sharpen up your Facebook statuses and your Twitter conversations and your sharing tabs because my insights are coming. And I hope to hear yours. Speak out! Tell us how we could be better!

If we suck, tell us! And tell us how to fix it!

Complain about our competitors! (Lord knows, I think most them suck, too!)

You don’t have to worry about any of them reading our site or survey because no one cares what little WNST has to say, right?

“They’ve only got 10 listeners.”

“Their radio signal is too weak.”

“They won’t attract the top-notch talent.”

“Two tin cans and a string.”

These were all direct quotes from The Sun – the dinosaur printed edition — over the years about WNST. Not on a message board. This was allegedly “responsible” journalism by staff writers from The Sun, who only seemed to call me for a quote when some idiot accused me of doing something inappropriate on some internet, toilet message board.

Potty talk about me on message boards are commonplace but assessments like the aforementioned in the biggest daily newspaper are very damaging to a small business but through the loyalty of our sponsors, listeners and now – users to our website – we have thrived amidst economic storm and a rapidly changing medium where the paradigms have been forever altered and no one in the “old boys club” is acknowledging it or recognizing it.

And it’s 2010 and now we’re the market leader because we’ve utilized this tool called the internet by delivering reliable, accurate, instant news, information and expertise in the palm of your hand whenever you want it. We’ve evolved far past being an AM radio station.

And we believe in free speech, not the blatant censorship for profit that our competitors have embraced and think you’re too stupid to recognize.

And we don’t plan on changing that at all!

Because if WNST.net is to be a true voice of the people – and it has always been a community-based company — quite frankly, our content and integrity and authority will speak for itself.

Your graduate class begins on Monday…see you bright and early!

Hop aboard and learn “all things Indianapolis, Ravens roadtrip and this weekend’s playoff game” here from WNST.net, where we pride ourselves on throwing the best parties and best events for the traveling purple crowd on the road!

First (as a shameless plug), our trip is on sale and our first bus is already sold out. We just put the second bus on sale. Honestly, our bus trip is designed to be the cheapest, easiest and most fun way to do the trip. You show up at 6 a.m. on Friday and almost everything is taken care of for you and you can relax and just have fun until Sunday night when we return around 9 p.m. (Go out on Facebook and ask around to the 109 people we took to New England this weekend or the thousands we’ve taken on the road in the past about our trips. No one does a trip like WNST. That’s a fact!)

But, judging from the droves of email I’m getting, lots of Ravens fans are developing lots of creative ways to get to Indianapolis – from BWI, from D.C., into various Midwestern locales via air, etc. And some are just piling into the “Family Roadster” and driving 10 hours all night on Friday and that all works, too!

If you’re coming to Indianapolis, we’ve developed a special Facebook page where we’ll be updating all pertinent info during the week. It’s called “I’m going to Indianapolis this weekend to see Ravens eliminate Colts!”

ANYONE who is wearing purple is cordially invited to come to our two massive parties on Friday night and all day Saturday to flock together, drink together, dance together, cheer together and have fun as a Baltimore community in Indianapolis.

(I’d insert some Irsay-related insult here, but I’ll refrain and keep that for Saturday afternoon when we might offer up a widely-popular side trip to piss on his grave. But, I digress…)

Here’s the biggest issue in Indy this weekend: there’s a gigantic cheerleader convention that is taking up 25,000 beds all weekend. This is clogging up virtually everything in the city this week.

The reality for Ravens fans? There are NO rooms available anywhere near the downtown area. If you’ve been shopping the internet, you already know this.

So, last week while I was researching the climate to throw a party and do a group trip pending a Ravens win in New England, I made some decisions to base my parties from an area north of the city called Broad Ripple. For lack of a better description, this is “the Fells Point of Indianapolis.” It’s a cool, walking bar area and we’ve obtained the three biggest bars in a party block to throw a gigantic purple area all night on Friday and all day on Saturday.

The good news: you won’t really be dealing with the Mertons of Indianapolis and stolen blue horseshoes until you get downtown on Saturday afternoon before the game. This town of Broad Ripple will become “Purple Ripple” sometime after 7 p.m. on Friday night.

Here are the details for our two parties:

Main Location: Rock Lobster, 820 Broad Ripple Ave. Indy

Click here for a full description of Rock Lobster and Average Joe’s and Mineshaft!

Official website for Broad Ripple Bars here…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Party pricing:

Friday (7 p.m. til 11 p.m.): $10 cover, cheap drinks all night

Saturday (11 a.m. til 6 p.m.): $20 in advance/$25 at door, FULL buffet & cheap drinks all night

If you buy BOTH parties now, it’s a $25 charge and you can buy the seats here…

Rock Lobster is our flagship headquarters on Friday night, but there’s little doubt that our parties will spill into the other two bars next door (Mineshaft & Average Joe’s) all day on Saturday.

HOTELS

If you are going to Indianapolis and NOT going with the WNST bus, I’d highly recommend two areas – both on the north side of the city – for hotels: Anywhere south of Carmel and in the Castleton area is a good spot if you’re planning on attending our purple parties.

There are also a bunch of rooms out on the southwest side of town near the Indianapolis Airport, but they’re a long way from downtown and even further from our parties. (And let’s be honest, none of us are going to be staying in Indy for more than a day or two, so I’m trying to be efficient in getting everyone into one spot and having an awesome time.)

GAME TICKETS

Tickets are about $125 and readily available. The Colts fans and the fans of Indianapolis suck, for the most part, and they have over 4,000 tickets on the web right now ready for purchase. The Colts fans aren’t that excited about this team right or none of these tickets would be so readily available.

Game tickets – if you have a little bit of money – will not be an issue in Indianapolis, unless 12,000 of us show up this weekend. That said, get your tickets early or just get on our roadtrip and it’s all taken care of for you.

And given the 10-hour drive and the non-existent airline availability, this is highly unlikely.

Here are some links to some of our parties in the past:

Last year in Nashville…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last year in Pittsburgh…

We also just put up the video of what our trips looked like this weekend in New England.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We had a really successful party in Providence and would love to see a “Nashville-style” celebration in Indy this weekend.

We hope to see you in Indianapolis on Friday night at Rock Lobster.

I have more ways to take the temperature of the city than I care to admit. From emails and AM 1570 to thousands of people on Facebook, Twitter and in a variety of web locales — this is a tepid metropolis right now regarding the Ravens.

I’m just looking for some purple string lights around the region and I’m not “feeling the love” for the 2009 Ravens.

Where’s YOUR purple, Baltimore?

Now before you say, “Nasty – I’m fired up for the game on Sunday, what are you talking about?” I will respond with facts (not low blows…).

Fact: There are still many flights into Providence, Boston and Manchester all day on Friday and Saturday.

Fact: There were still seats left on my bus a few hours ago. I reserved NINE buses for the weekend. I’m using TWO.

Fact: Seats for the game on the internet are face value (or BELOW) in almost every case. There are PLENTY of tickets to be had. Hate to be Capt. Obvious here, but ANYONE can get in their car on Saturday and drive up to the game very inexpensively…if they’re willing to brave a 20-degree day.

Fact: I’m not even getting a trickle of the email traffic, the “Hey Nasty, where’s the party this New England” emails like I usually do. We have over 100 people on our Facebook “I’m Going to New England this weekend” page, but I figured we’d have at least 500.

Last weekend in Oakland, there were less Ravens fans than I’ve ever seen at a road game. Matter of fact, there was no audible “Ohhh” in the National Anthem. Other than family members of players, I didn’t see a hint of purple or Ravens fans anywhere.

The tickets are dirt cheap in New England and the Patriots fans don’t want them either. All four locations this weekend have spare tickets for LESS than face value!!!

The Patriots fans are setting the tone for the “unplayoffs.” They’ve won three Super Bowls, two World Series and an NBA Championship in the last nine years. Judging from the depth of cheap seats on the internet, the Chowdah’s aren’t so impressed with this version of the Patriots, either. Apparently, if a bye isn’t involved, the New England fans will skip another 20-degree afternoon in Foxborough.

The game itself has all sorts of drama built into it that no playoff game really needs. The Tom Brady-Ray Lewis issue from September. The comeback in 2007 that ended with the Patriots keeping their undefeated season in tact. And, the sheer volume of freaking Red Sox fans that take over Baltimore three times a summer ought to get purple fans pissed off enough to go up to New England and take over a significant portion of their “unused” tickets.

Here’s a link to the Tom Brady Bang Cartoon from September if you haven’t seen it. A wild portrayal of Greg Mattison for sure. And very funny…

Here’s the current reality of the Providence situation for WNST:

I’ve not only been on every postseason roadtrip the Ravens have ever had, I’ve been the only one throwing gigantic parties for people in purple.

I’m not sensing that we’ll have 1,500 people at Dave & Buster’s in Providence Saturday night like we did in Nashville. I’m not sure we’ll have 1,500 fans at the game yelling “Ohhhh” in the National Anthem on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Sure there are reasons to be optimistic:

1. Sooner or later, we’ll beat the Patriots in New England.
2. The Ravens are going to run the ball and stop the run.
3. Wes Welker absence can’t hurt.
4. Tom Brady’s injuries can’t hurt.
5. I saw a glimmer in the eyes of all of the Ravens veterans yesterday, from Trevor Pryce and Ray Lewis to Derrick Mason and Matt Birk. They know what’s at stake.

So, get out those purple lights. Consider a last-minute “roadie” up I-95 after tonight’s snowstorm. Buy some tickets. Bring a parka.

I’d hate to think that Baltimore can’t get 1000% behind Festivus 2010.

Of course, if the Ravens win on Sunday afternoon, I don’t think we’ll have any problem getting people stoked about going out to Indianapolis to kick Peyton Manning’s ass. And yes, our bus will be on sale at 5 p.m. Sunday if that’s the case…

I have a feeling the city will be awash in purple when our Gunther buses pull back into Baltimore after midnight with a ticket punched to Ind-ia-no-place.

Right?