Everybody can think of things that piss them off. Although this page is for the Broadcast Industry, gripes are vast. I will list some of my gripes, both in the industry and in life. Keep in mind that this is only a small sample of my gripes! ADD YOUR GRIPES BY SUBMITTING THEM IN THE MAILBAG on the bottom of the page.
1) Radio morning shows. It's bad enough that stations submit you to twice the normal amount of commercials, but to have some moron(s) droning on about the local sports teams, politics, actors, etc. yeech! Most morning shows are just plain lame, and really tedious to listen to. You can be creative without the canned yuk yuks and wannabe- stern-like humor. It's just old.
2) Racism on all levels, on all sides. Forcing stations to hire people based on the color of their skin or their ethnic background over their actual ability to do the job (and being forced to bypass qualified candidates) is just wrong. Denying minority owned stations your advertising business because of the perception that their target audience is low class is equally as wrong. More than one ethnic group of people listen to each format these days.
3) TV Sitcoms. Is it me or are most sitcoms turning into soaps? On going story lines like will Niles get Daffney, The Friends wedding(s), etc. These lame story lines are just plain stupid and insulting to the general public, but sitcoms have always been that.
4) Right wing station owners. I used to work for some of them. Pure Hell, for instance - WLNY-TV (NY), The owner is a hard core right winger. They air popular movies to get ratings, but edit out a huge amount of content due to the owners views. They air religious 700 Club programming in the mornings and their local news is filled with right wing views only. Republican Senators and NY's Republican Govenor are regulars. You will never see a Democrat. Don't even get me going on FOX News Channel, pur crap. Now, I am not anti-republican, I really would consider myself somewhat towards the middle - it's just that when people like Dolan buy stations (USA) they force their morals on the world.
5) Pizza outside of NY. Yes, pizza. I lived on Pizza when I was full time in NY. Since then I have been to Maryland, Virginia, California, Minnesota, Nevada, Maine, Mass., Florida and Pennsylvania (some others too). I don't understand how something so simple can't be done out of NY. People........ pizza is on a thin crunchy crust - with lotsa cheese and home-made sauce, not Ragu. It is not a Pie with a thick mushy crust.
6) Rap. Rap is not music. It's a bunch of morons that barely speak English, and a Casio. I don't see the talent in semi-talking (mis-pronouncing words and making them up) and not playing instraments. The worst thing about rap is that it is influencing kids in a bad way. Guns in schools, the baggy pants that Criss Cross started - speaking of Criss Cross, where are they now? There is no staying power for rap. It is all here today, gone tomorrow. You won't find a "Dark Side Of The Moon" among rap records. No Classic Rap, When something is good, it stands the test of time. Where are the Fat Boys now? Rap is a bunch of no talent low lifes that are corrupting what's left of the music biz, and beyond.
7) Arron Spelling TV shows. Charmed, Beverly Hills 90210, Love Boat 2, and that horrible soap during the day, "Sunset Beach". These shows are the worst. Luckily they don't seem to be lasting very long anymore. Love Boat 2.....long gone! The acting is really bad, the story lines are bad, and for some reason, women love them. Every women that I know watches that trash and I just don't get it.
8) News Magazine/Tabloid TV Shows. Inside Edition, Extra, Hard Copy, etc. Probably the worst thing about these shows is that people take them for real news. All these shows are is stories about a fallen actor, something to do with sex, and a story on some kind of a hero. Regular TV news is starting to resemble tabloid trash news shows lately, and often refers to them as news. Extra did a story on Jerry Springer being fake, and news programs used them as a reliable source!- when all that story was, was "the fallen actor".
9) Slow Drivers. If your gonna drive slow, do it in the right lane. Here's a tip: if more than two cars are tailing you, you are driving too slow - move! Mini-vans are the worst. It's bad enough that you can't see around them, but most drive slow and won't move out of your way. They complain about road rage, if the slow mini-vans and pick up trucks would either stay to the right or speed up, most road rage problems would go away. What's with mini vans anyway? They scream square-on-board. You can fit the same amount of people in a wagon and the wagon is easier to drive. I especially don't like them because I can't see around them. Most are slow, 4 cylinder heavy vehicles. Please stop buying them!
10) Manic Sports Fans. I have always thought that religion and sports were there to keep the publics' attention off of real important things, like what is going on in their own backyard. I am not into all sports. I like boxing a bit, and I can watch Hockey, but most sports just bore me, unless I'm playing them. Some guys don't understand that not everybody cares about some dumb game that a bunch of overpaid yahoos are playing. Wheather it's some moron in a bar talking to me, or some idiot DJ on the radio babbling about sports (usually the morning show lamers), it's just annoying. I don't like when society force feeds me things like Rap, mini-vans, Backstreet Boys, Billy Joel, Ally McBeal...you get the point. I lump sports into that mess. I'll be out somewhere in Maryland, and some guy will realize that I'm from NY, and tell me that the Yankees suck or the Giants or whatever. I'm like ....ok whatever. After all, it's only a game!
Well, there's my biggest gripes. I must have ticked off somebody! Let me know. Do you love your Mini-van, dig the Yankees, listen to rap, or watch some of the TV shows that I bashed? I will re-post your responses on this page as they come in. Bash away!
Omar Agosto has this to say:
My gripe is people who say rap music isn't music. I have heard all the arguments about rappers "mis-pronouncing words and making them up". Now ignorant people saying such asinine comments apparently do not understand what music is to make such idiotic comments in the first place. Music as stated by Webster's is:
mu·sic . Abbr. mus. The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. Vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody, harmony, or rhythm. A musical composition. The written or printed score for such a composition. Such scores considered as a group: We keep our music in a stack near the piano. A musical accompaniment. A particular category or kind of music. An aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound or combination of sounds: the music of the wind in the pines. So by definition rap is music it just not be the type of music that caters to some. A more fair comment is to say " I don't like rap music" but to say it's not music because one does not like it is just plain arrogant. What kind of person defines what is or isn't something based on their opinion. If I don't like oranges is it fair for me to say then that oranges aren't fruits? I can say it all I want but it doesn't make it so. The fact that rap music is " An aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound or combination of sounds" to some means that by definition it is music.
Lois B. from Dallas, TX has this to say:
My gripes? Hmmm...major complaints lately have been the astronomical and undeserved success of the "Spice Girls", the fact that in theory I hate "South Park", but I still laugh when it's on, and general dismay at the lack of substance in pop culture today. "Beanie Babies", however, are the BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!!;-)
Eric Fisher from Westmister, MD has this gripe:
Not a comment about TV/Radio, just a gripe. I hate thin crust pizza. I almost starved last tiime I went to New York because the pizza was like dining on sauce covered crackers. Now Chicago, there's real pizza. I have never tasted pizza like I did on the Navy Pier last summer. Deep dish is the way pizza was meant to be created. If I want thin crust, I'll just slap some cheese on a Ritz.
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