barry liss on 
Kathy Tepsa on 
clhughes on So, not to belabor a point, but I thought the Twitter interaction I had with the official Rock 94.7 Twitter page, and a member of the Rock 94.7 staff was worth coming back to. If you want, you can follow my personal Twitter thread and see what happened. I am not particularly proud of it.
Last week you can see a blog post I wrote about what Terry Stevens said on the air. That has been edited out of the online content, so at this point you are going to have to take it with a little bit of faith that he did what I described. He apologized for it, so at least we know something happened. That was last week.
This week I got to my computer, logged on and found a message from the official Rock 94.7 Twitter account instructing me to “please leave the internet. Love, Lunchbox.” This was a little bit both exciting, and confusing. You see, I had gone away for the weekend and forgotten all about the internet. I came back to the internet to find that. Now I have to wonder, what I did to upset the largest media company in central Wisconsin so much that a staff member would be sending me an official message from Midwest Communications through a public internet channel like twitter. I suppose being critical of Terry was enough.
Now, I do not mind a little back and forth on the internet. But, when an entire corporate entity like Rock 94.7 decides to tell me something like that, that is completely different. These are the words of a multimillion dollar media conglomerate telling me to leave the internet. That seems serious. Then, staff member Greg Atoms decided to get in the Twitter game as well. I think Greg was mocking me, doing a little passive intimidation thing, and eventually roping his followers in on the Dino Sucks game. Which is cool. Rock 94.7 is trying to be edgy, so a good way to be edgy is to single out a critic of your station, and mock that person on the interwebs. Or is that bullying? Worse, is that bullying by Midwest communications toward me?
Let’s be clear, I do not think the Wright family has any idea what Greg Atoms said or did not say on Twitter. Nor do I think that they know who I am. Or that this website even exists. But, Greg Atoms identified himself as a Rock 94.7 staff person on Twitter until I called him on it, then he changed it. And Rock 94.7 is the official Twitter account for a Midwest Communication property.
So, I have to wonder a couple of things…is this good social media theory and practice? I am no angel here — I was a jerk to Kevin Hermening years ago. And I apologized to Kevin publicly. But is it a good idea for staff people for the largest media company in the area to single out one individual who was critical of their staff (said staff apologized publicly) and to mock them (me)? I am also reflective on my role in this. Did I take what Terry Stevens said too seriously? Did I make too much of it? And in doing so did I provoke this reaction from the staff at Midwest Communications?
I do not know. I know that I do not dig the so-called edgy version of FM radio that is going about today. Not just the Midwest products, but in general. I might be a humorless ass, but man, somethings are just not funny no matter how many jager or bud light ads you wrap around them. So, did I provoke this reaction from the staff of Rock 94.7? Was their reaction valid or unprofessional? Does it matter? Is there anywhere for local media criticism anymore?
[You can see the screen shots of the twitter conversation here.]
I love you Dino-rino…but seriously, if you think that you are just a random “citizen” you’re wrong. You have created a site in an attempt to become famous. Let’s call it what it is. So you have stepped out from the faceless public crowd to become a public figure, even if no one knows who you are, you’ve still given up your rights as an innocent member of the public. Same as a politician.
Now lets revisit the “situation” from last week. We approached a venue with a MASSIVE discount (over a $1,000 discount) to do an event. You know, this is how we make our living, paid advertising. Anyway, we were told that they didn’t want to work with us. So we jokingly poked fun at the situation without naming names. By the way, the band poked fun too. And it wasn’t serious until YOU made it out to be a serious matter. And I get it, you’re edgy, you attack and attack and attack until someone responds, then you cry foul, but my issue was the fact you couldn’t accept an apology. The apology that was offered became “a cover-up” in your mind.
So rather than taking you seriously (because after reading your ramblings, that’s impossible) I decided to take a page out of your own book, I spent a day trolling you. I DID. Not a radio station, not a company, not an industry…I PERSONALLY DID. But again, you’re trying to be edgy, its your thing, make a bigger deal out of it than what it really is.
But I want to jump back to a previous point. You threw a big fit about us pointing out a venue choosing to not advertise with us. You said multiple times we should have just done it for free…WHAT!?!? The same day you took to your Twitter (I hope not representing The City Pages right?) to defend a local publications eminent implementation of a “pay-wall” service forcing readers to pay for their content. So you support one medium trying to extort more money out of their end-users while at the same time dogging us for trying to make money through our traditional model? Do you start to see how jacked-up this is?
Finally, I want to point out, our day-long Twitter conversation yesterday was funny. The whole thing was a joke, as many of the bystanders noted…even though you didn’t get the joke. Don’t take the internet too seriously, or you’ll never get out alive. (I need to be really clear with you, that was advice, not a threat)
Greg,
Thank you for taking the time to post a comment. I will try to address your response in a somewhat organized manner. Again, thank you for taking the time.
1. The actual incident. First off, the public will not know what Terry said or did not say, since he edited the interview to erase his mistake, and the piece that offended the venue. What he did do was apologize to the venue for acting unprofessionally, and he apologized repeatedly.
I do not accept Terrys apology, since he covered up any evidence of his wrong doing. Which is fine.
The issue of the actual discount to the venue is irrelevant. The actions of a on air radio person, and the content of what he said is relevant. I feel pretty stable in that regard given that Terry apologized.
2. In regards to your trolling, your profile identified your radio station of employment, until I called you on it. This again is impossible to verify, since you changed it, but I feel pretty stable about that as well.
3. I do not think I said that you should have advertised for free. I think that shaming a venue in the way Terry did because they chose to not advertise was wrong. This is a completely different thing. There was no point in doing an interview for a band show, to get to the point where you tell the people where the band is playing, then say…we would tell you where they are playing but the venue did not buy advertising, so we are not going to. This is what I objected to.
4. In regard to your City Pages comment, you are free to call them or contact them about what I said on twitter. I am sure that no paper publisher is going to object to someone supporting journalism. But, maybe that would happen. Furthermore, if you were to look at the twitter accounts from the City pages staff…they are things like CitypagesRick, or CitypagesPat, or CitypagesAmanda. This is different than my twitter nickname. And I would think that would be a clue for you.
5. In regards to your life advice to me about not taking things too seriously, thank you. But, since you have not met me, and only been in the same room with me 1 time, I would offer that you and I see the world differently. Thank you for your advice though.
I hope I answered your concerns.
Dude… Almost all of this occurred on his personal account. You seem to be rummaging for sympathy at this point, really.
Since I know both of you I am going to simply state the facts as I know them, being that I am sort of a part time employee of the venue in question.
First off, we were told by the management that contacted the club, that we WOULD NOT have to advertise, that it was being taken care of gratis.
I received a phone call from the advertising people at the station and was asked to spend $200, (which is a great deal! I agree!) on advertising. Wednesday nights are rough in wausau and by the club pays the sound guy $100 , the door guy $50 (necessary if you want to run a show right and not have trouble with minors) then figure in bar tenders (figure one on a slow nigt) $50, we are already up to $200 before the band even walks in the door. Then add a $400 band on a wed. night, now get two more bands because the headliner only does an hour.
It adds up quickly, and with a good draw on a wednesday in wausau you may make…Lets say $1000 tops?
There simply was no budget for advertising, and like i said we were told it was handled for us. The club has no problem using the radio station and has done advertising in the past, so the comment “They dont advertise with us is false” we didn’t for that show but have in the past.
Were we upset by the comment? Yes, and many people i talked to were as well…many fans of the band told me later they were upset that they couldn’t find out where the show was until it was too late.
Much of the problems were because the show was so short notice and no one had time to sort out the miscommunications.
But hey, whatever….life goes on. Is it the end of the club and radio station working together because of a miscommunication and a shitty comment on air? No…I certainly hope that both groups are mature enough to move past it and work together at some point for the good of the music scene in Wisconsin because that is why both exist.
I have generally stayed out of this pissing match, but I feel the need to point out a very important bit of misinformation here. Disclaimer: I work in MWC’s web department as a developer.
Tom, in claiming that you were told that “we were told by the management that contacted the club, that we WOULD NOT have to advertise, that it was being taken care of gratis,” you should have really specified that this was NOT the management of Rock 94.7 that told you this, it was the management for the band. Your statement is VERY misleading.
Second, you claim that the venue HAS spent money with Rock 94.7 in the past — this is simply false, the truth is that not one dollar from the venue has ever been paid to the station. The biggest reason that all of his hullabaloo started is that the venue advertises exclusively with a competing radio station. If, as you’re implying with your dollar figures, the venue simply didn’t have the funds to advertise, that would be one thing — but that simply is not the case. The venue does have funds for advertising, and those funds go to a competing station.
This whole thing was strictly business. I firmly believe that all of the parties involved have a great love of music and a desire to see the local music scene improve, and it’s unfortunate that these business decisions have become so personal.
Hey, if you want to get offended at a comment, how about Nagle’s comment that Wausau should make it difficult to be a landlord, if you want to be landlord, do it in Schofield.
Now I always thought he was pretty useless as a city attorney, but through his tenure as a member of the council, I was actually really starting to like and respect the guy.
Gone gone gone.
If you want to get on a soap box, lets get on a box about real issues that impact real lives…
This 94.7 issue is no where near as big of a deal as it was made out to be.
Personally, I listened 94.7 all the time when they did a mix, it was all good songs from the last 30-40 years. I could listen while working in my shed for 14 hours, never hear a bad song, and never hear the same song twice. Then that format went away because I guess they felt like 104.1 needed some big-boy competition.
Thats fine, I have an ipod
Ben…thanks for taking part.
Did you hear what Terry said? He apologized for it, and edited it out online. So, it must have been unprofessional.
That is what I was upset about.
And now I think I have moved on and I wonder outloud on the internet about Greg Atoms and Lunchbox’s action on their twitter accounts.
I am excited to hear what Midwest Communication management thinks of their actions, and comments as well.
I did not hear what Terry said on the air, but I feel like if something disrespectful or unprofessional was said that removing it from the podcast and apologizing is really about all he could do.
The nature of live media is that sometimes we say things that can be a little out of line before we realize it — for example, if I were to Tweet something that was offensive, I would consider deleting the tweet and offering another tweet that acknowledged the offensive tweet and apologized for it to be about the best way to handle it.
I guess I just wish we could get this level of social media engagement about some of the more important things that happen around Wausau!
I am sure we can. But, I do think it is significant when the largest media company in the market does what it did. When Terry did what he did on the air, that is worthy of discussion.
I am sure it is not fun since it is you guys, but it is worthy of discussion.
I also think it is worthy of discussion when Lunchbox uses the official twitter account of Rock 94.7 to tell me to LEAVE THE INTERNET, and when Greg Atoms from Rock 94.7 spend a whole day ‘trolling’ me.
These are action taken by people at the largest media company in Wausau, and are worthy of discussion.
This is yet another case of Dino taking non-issues and attempting to blow them up into something important to get attention.
But, much like a balloon, when you scratch the surface, you find out it’s hollow and only looks big on the outside.
He attempted to make a mountain out of a mole hill and is failing so here he is clamoring for any foothold to make his original whining seem legit. He even is attempting to get people fired from their jobs over it by contacting management. Over Twitter comments with some jabs back and forth. He wants people to go jobless over it. That ought to tell you what kind of person we’re dealing with. Some guy tells him to leave the internet (which is a daily comical jab on internet forums) and he flies into a tizzy about it and wants to make a big deal out of it.
People are getting so tired of it by now that we only find it humorous to watch it implode. If he ends up getting people fired over being jabbed on the internet, well, then it steps to the next level and it becomes serious and Dino will finds himself with even less friends than before (which according to his personal blog was already near zero) because no one will want to say a word to the guy in case he takes it too seriously.
Greg said it best when he said “And I get it, you’re edgy, you attack and attack and attack until someone responds, then you cry foul.”
Thank you PeanutGalley for contributing to the discussion.
To clear something up, I have not contacted Midwest Communications management and asked for anyone to be fired.
So, that is misleading on your part.
I said I am excited to hear what they think. Because I am excited about it.
Thank you though.
I’m going to make this very clear.
I brought an off-air matter between and business and our station on-air and online. That was unprofessional on my behalf.
I admitted my wrongdoing, apologized to the venue and removed the segment from the audio I posted online. There’s no point in apologizing for what I did if I’m going to let the audio continue to fester on the internet.
That would be like Dino calling my mother a whore, apologizing for calling my mother a whore, yet leaving his website, http://www.TerrysMotherIsAWhore.com up and running.
At no point did I deny what I did. In fact, I spent quite a bit of time admitting what I did and apologizing for it. In no way does that constitute a cover up.
In other news, I agree with Dr. Rent that Nagle’s “Wausau should make it difficult to be a landlord, if you want to be landlord, do it in Schofield” is the new “Let them eat cake”.
We obviously differ substantially on the motivations for the editing of your content, especially since it came after we call you on it.
But it is true, you apologized profusely.
It appears now that your company, and coworkers, have takn up commenting, and the use of twitter to come to your defense and squelching someone from saying it.
I mean Greg went so far as to post from work, using his work email, so again, the station is being represented.
But thank you Terry.
“Differ on my motivations”?
Like you said, you called me on something. I looked at it from a perspective other than my own, realized I was the asshole, and removed the audio because it was just as asshole a thing to say online as it was to say on-air. THAT was my motivation.
Calling me on something unprofessional that I said on the air was correct.
Griping when I refuse to keep saying that same unprofessional thing online is hypocritical.
Now let’s talk about YOUR motivations.
Why exactly do you want the audio to remain online? Do you think the venue should be, as you put it, “shamed/intimidated” some more via podcast/YouTube? Do YOU have something against the venue? Did they kick you out for disorderly conduct one night? What is YOUR motivation?
Lemme guess. Page views on your blog, right?
Thanks for the response Terry. It is cool that we see it differently. I do not think it at all reflects on you as a guy, but I do think that it is iffy.
And if you knew the number of people who sent me emails about what a good man you were your heart would be warmed.
Let me answer your questions.
“Why exactly do you want the audio to remain online?”
I want the audio to remain online because without the audio remaining online the blog post lacks any context. No one knows what you said, so no one knows why I took the time to write a response. Looking back I should have grabbed the audio for myself, to avoid that. But, now it looks like I am writing about nothing.
“Do you think the venue should be, as you put it, “shamed/intimidated” some more via podcast/YouTube?”
I do not. Like I said above, without the edited content, what I wrote has no context.
“Do YOU have something against the venue? Did they kick you out for disorderly conduct one night? What is YOUR motivation?”
They have not kicked me out of the venue. My motivation is to have a real discussion moving forward about the role of local media in the redevelopment of the local economy and more specifically the local music scene. What you said was such an outlier that I thought it was illustrative in the disconnection between the current commercial radio stations in this market, and the local music community. I think that in general, local media is completely disconnected from local music, and local radio specifically is hanging onto a business model and content delivery that is antiquated. I am sure that the massive advertising numbers do not bear this theory out to be sound, but Poney and Speak Eater have never appeared in the playlists of a Midwest Communication station. So, the programming choices put forth by the book, and the consultants furthers this disconnection.
“Lemme guess. Page views on your blog, right?”
In regards to page views, there is no real upside to page views here, save for the discussion. We do not have avertising, so click throughs do not result in money for us. Our staff is not paid. We used google ad words for a bit, but the money was smaller than the pain in taking care of it. So that went away.
So, aside from my desire to draw attention to the disconnection of local music and local radio, my motivation was simply I wanted to write about it in the first place.
The second post was to high light the actions put forth by your station, and its representatives who took the time to target a private individual. I think that this has turned out really interesting, I am sort of shock by the attacking nature of Greg and some of the others, but I think that it is illustrative of something I am interested in. This sort of discussion style that is not based on engagement, but simply on putting forth the idea that they want to communicate. For example, Greg said I wanted to become famous, making an assumption about me as a human. Thereby this assumption can fuel all the information he wants to complain.
This assumption and statement does not address the material put forth in the blog post. It would have been a lot more substantive to take the time to speak to Greg the staff member of Rock 94.7 about the role of media criticism and how that affects the business of radio. Does the feedback loop result in anything positive?
Because right now it feels a little bit like when you are critical of the media, what will result is a few days of trolling and intimidation from Midwest Communication (ie Greg). This is an interesting choice made by Greg, and the station.
I applaud you in this though for being thoughtful about your responses. You and I went back and forth for a couple of hours on the interwebs, and you took the time to listen. Which I think was amazing, and I really do dig you for it.
Again, thanks for your response. I hope mine was straight forward.
Dino, you want the audio to remain online to give your blog context, even at the expense of “shaming/intimidating” the venue in question.
I applaud you for being honest about your blatantly self-interested motivation.
As far as our station’s disconnect from the local music scene is concerned, we air a show every Sunday night called The Buzz. Local bands like 4th Floor are a part of it. I don’t have a hand in programming that show, but I’m sure Lunchbox can provide a comprehensive list of local bands that are a part of it.
As far as the show I do have a hand in programming goes, 4th Floor and Time to Kill have been played on Scary Terry’s Saturday Nightmare.
You know why Poney hasn’t been played on Scary Terry’s Saturday Nightmare?
Because they haven’t sent me a CD or digital files with permission to play them. I can’t play their stuff without their express permission. I’ve tagged them (and Planet of 9 for that matter) in Facebook posts inviting them to send stuff our way.
Personally, I think “Seamyth” is an awesome album. Its sound tests well. It isn’t my or Rock 94.7′s fault if Poney can’t be bothered to submit their music for airplay.
As to Speaker Eater or any other local band looking for airplay, the process is simple. Send us a CD or digital file with express written permission to allow airplay. Once we receive that, your band will go through the same vetting process that every band on our playlist goes through.
We do a ton of audience testing, surveys and research to shape our playlist. Our station is literally programmed “by the people, for the people.” If we don’t play your band it’s because our audience has told us they’re just not that into what you’re doing. It’s not you, it’s them, but they hope that you can still be friends.
I have stacks of CDs and several gigs of digital material from record labels and bands of all sizes, indie and major label, that don’t make the cut. The competition for airtime is tough. If you don’t make the cut, don’t get mad. Get back to work, keep practicing, keep playing, keep getting better, and try again. Metallica didn’t get to where they are overnight.
As far as supporting the local economy goes, we are part of the local economy too. We’re not traded on Wall Street. We’re Wisconsin-owned and operated. We pay local, state and federal taxes just like every other local business.
We provide advertising opportunities for local for-profit businesses to get the word out about their product or service. We collect a very reasonable fee for those opportunities. We also provide a ton of pro-bono advertising for non-profits and charities.
You wouldn’t ask a car dealer to give away free sedans or a bar to give away free beer in the name of supporting the local economy. Asking us to give away free advertising to for-profit ventures is just as ludicrous.
Terry, I do not want to return to an extended discussion about the difference between offering free advertising, and what you did on the air, because those are two completely DIFFERENT things.
I could not agree more with you about bands not showing up to give you CDs and the like. And I think we can see in this example that brought out this discussion a little bit of WHY that is.
When you were aggressive with a local venue, this diminishes your credibility with musicians, especially musicians with ties to that venue.
to invoke Metallica is misleading. The record industry has changed, and then the commercial FM radio market was needed to help break an artist. Today it is not. Artists make millions on things like ringtones of all things.
As far as your claim of testing, come on. I live here. I know NO ONE who has ever sat with your programming staff and been asked if they liked a song or artist. Be frank about it, you guys get a consultant book, Midwest pays for it, and the programming comes out of that.
It is not a problem to admit it, but to claim that you are programmed locally I think is misleading. Sure, you have a local program director, but I do not believe that you have an local musical format or specific artist testing.
You just do not have time. Or the money. It is far more cost effective to let someone else do that research, buy that research and work off of it. I do not fault you at all for it, if that is what you do.
But, that information is not gathered locally.
Have a good weekend.
You’re way off on a couple of notes here, Dino.
“to invoke Metallica is misleading. The record industry has changed, and then the commercial FM radio market was needed to help break an artist. Today it is not. Artists make millions on things like ringtones of all things.”
Metallica received zero radio support until the “One” single. Prior to that, they released 3 full length albums, a slew of demos and EPs, and toured relentlessly. Most kids found out about them through tape trading or metal ‘zines. They didn’t get airplay first and THEN do all the hard work.
Despite your assertion that FM radio is unnecessary to getting an artist’s music into the public eye, record labels big and small spend gobs of money promoting their artists to radio. They wouldn’t do that if they didn’t see some sort of financial return on that investment.
Then again, with all your years working for…which label was it again? Warner? Victory? Roadrunner? Anyway, with all of your experience working in the record industry, maybe you’re privy to insider information that I’m not.
FM radio is easily accessed by anyone with a cheap FM receiver. There are no subscription fees, data plans, bandwidth restrictions, or expensive equipment needed to listen to it. But I can see your point. Why would an artist want their content to be on something like that? Those last two sentences were highly sarcastic.
Now on to your next inaccurate claim.
“As far as your claim of testing, come on. I live here. I know NO ONE who has ever sat with your programming staff and been asked if they liked a song or artist. Be frank about it, you guys get a consultant book, Midwest pays for it, and the programming comes out of that.”
Maybe your circle of friends doesn’t listen to our stations. Otherwise, they may have heard our invitations to participate in our listener surveys that we conduct on a regular basis.
But, you know, feel free to keep talking smack without bothering to do the homework it takes to get the facts.