19 FEB 08: GET OUT OF TOWN

The other shoe dropped Monday morning at WDAK radio - as sportscaster/Program Director Scott Miller announced "The Morning Show, now teamed with The Wall Street Journal." And the Wall Street Journal dominated, for the time I was listening - as if Synovus, TSYS and Aflac suddenly had been added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The taped TV newscasts were gone from WDAK, but the format was different. Fox News Radio was cut in half, with Chris Weber's local newscast beginning at three after the hour - and he was through in three minutes, instead of going seven or eight. And no, the reason was NOT that Weber suddenly was reading twice as fast....

After a short sports report (your tongue-twister of the day) from Scott Miller, WDAK turned things over to "The Wall Street Journal This Morning" for the next 20 minutes or so. Since it was Presidents' Day, there were no stock market updates - but plenty of financial features and interviews. They must have offered "Money for Breakfast" before the Fox Business Network did.

As I heard this change, several things became clear to me. First: Val McGuinness is NOT being replaced at.... well, check that. WDAK did replace him, but with a network broadcast. He must have been making more money than I realized....

(A tipster to the blog claims Val McGuinness has NOT been answering his phone at home. Maybe he's doing what I once did after losing a job -- taking a nice, long vacation before the severance checks run out.)

Second: WDAK's promise to have the "only local news.... morning show" in town has been gutted quite a bit. The Morning Show team is now heard about 15 minutes per hour, instead of 40 minutes or more. And I don't think they're saving Scott Miller's voice for the Columbus State University basketball playoff run.

Third: WDAK did NOT come full circle with this change. It could have reverted back to 1997, and brought back Don Imus.

Fourth: WDAK continues a sad trend in Columbus radio - reducing the presence of local announcers, in favor of regional or national networks. When a deputy tax commissioner is doing weekend on-air work at "Foxie 105," it's NOT a good sign....

Have you noticed this reduction in the "localness" of radio in Columbus? Three of the six AM stations now broadcast national talk shows in the morning. If this trend continues, Jim Foster on WSHE might change his program to "Maximum Columbus in the Morning."

The FM band in Columbus also has plenty of out-of-towners in the morning - from Tom Joyner to Steve Harvey, from "Bob and Sheri" to "John Boy and Billy." Just because those last two sell frozen burgers in grocery stores does NOT mean they're located here in town.

Of course, this isn't simply a morning trend. WGSY presents John Tesh from Colorado in the middle of the day. WKZJ offers Michael Baesden from New York in the afternoon. But I guess WRCG still carries that the Saturday morning show with the NAACP - because otherwise, Bill Madison would be complaining at news conferences about it.

Haven't the radio owners in Columbus been watching the trends in other media? Newspapers and television newscasts are striving to appear more local than ever. Yet several radio stations pay for TV talent to provide their news - although no one's been absurd enough to use WLTZ news anchors in Iowa.

If Columbus radio stations want to avoid losing listeners to Internet channels and satellite services such as Sirius (tongue-twister #2), you'd think they would try to have the biggest local presence possible. And I personally think that means more than parking the official station van in front of a car dealer on Saturday afternoons.

Even the public radio networks covering Columbus seem to grasp this. Georgia Public Broadcasting now has a nightly half-hour of Georgia news and information. And it added a Columbus-based reporter last year - who happens to have an office inside the RiverCenter, not hidden in some business park.

But the three conglomerates running Columbus's commercial radio stations keep making cuts. They seem more concerned about profits than a local presence -- yet I think it's possible to have both. Davis Broadcasting's WFXE "Foxie 105" seems to do it, and is constantly on top of the ratings. But they'd better not take ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike" off their sports-talk station....

E-MAIL UPDATE: Let's move to a former WDAK radio reporter, who's now on television....

You know when Dee Armstrong took a stand against mistreatment by management she stood up for everyone no matter what color...Dee , you are a stand up girl in my eyes !!

The front-page story about Dee Armstrong was shocking news to me -- but this is one of those cases where I'm a bit too close to the parties involved to say much. I sang with Armstrong at a Columbus church service several years ago. In fact, I don't recall singing any other duets since I came here -- so I hope no white singer files a similar complaint against me.

Our Presidents' Day holiday special with nine Barbie dolls inspired someone to add to the list:

The Macon Rd barbie likes to read,but can't find her library card..Her dress is tri-focals glasses,hair in a bun,canvas bag over her shoulder,crepe sole shoes,and a leisure suit..Ken is walking behind her always looking over his shoulder for a library book snatcher. He has on Realtree Camo and an IPOD turned up so loud everyone in the library turns around..

Aren't you forgetting something here? This Barbie would be bringing little children to the library with her - and letting them run around a bit, while she's on the laptop computer at the café.

We were reminded Monday that the Sin City Inquisition and Bar-B-Q blog in east Alabama offered its own "faux Barbie" a couple of years ago. We don't know if she inspired the group which was e-mailed to us. But that blog's new "Historic District Barbie" is lacking one thing - a briefcase in her hand, for walking to the Government Center from her law office.

Let's see what else made us look twice on a holiday Monday....

+ Our "Burkard Bulk Mail Index" dropped below the 1,000 mark for the first time on record. The business of spam must be in absolute depression. Either that, or all those ailing women overseas offering me their inheritances actually have died.

+ Chattahoochee County Sheriff Glenn Cooper admitted he bought a tornado-damaged mobile home park in Cusseta last month. Cooper says he didn't have time to get the mobile homes insured, before Sunday's storm. And before he could flip the properties, they flipped over on their own.

+ Former President Jimmy Carter gave a Presidents' Day lecture at the historic Plains High School. He told Albany's WALB-TV people seem as disillusioned today as when he took office in 1977. Is that why the Mega Millions jackpot tonight stands at $220 million - because no one really thinks they can win anymore?

SCHEDULED WEDNESDAY: A blog reader demands we take a stand....

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