Today is a rather anxious day in XM nation. That's because the new channel lineup, post-merger of XM and Sirius, takes hold. I always listened to Fred, Ethel and Lucy on XM. They have been replaced by 1st Wave, Alt Nation and Lithium respectively.

My first thoughts are they have effectively killed Fred. Why last night I was able to hear groups like the Charlatans. This morning, I had this stretch:

"Eyes Without A Face"/Billy Idol
"I Will Follow"/U2
"Ball of Confusion"/Love and Rockets
"Rush"/Big Audio Dynamite

I like Billy Idol in his Generation X days, not that crappy tune. The U2 song, a classic for sure, but rarely played on Fred. How about "Stories For Boys" or something like that? I get the last two selections, although "Rush" would probably be played on Lucy. The first two could be heard virtually anywhere on terrestrial radio.

On the trip home, I heard "Kinda Kute" by Joe Jackson. OK, that's an amalgam of every one of Jackson's early tunes, but not often played. Good choice. And nothing wrong with hearing "London Calling" or "Fashion" by Bowie. But, "Voices Carry"? I only stick with that so I can sing, "Hu-u-u-u-u-sh, hush...keep it down now...voices carry". I'm afraid the songs of the Fred Essentials era are going to be tossed.

Disappointing Day One, I'd say, because the "Classic New Wave" that they play is just going to cover the "hits". I don't think I'll be hearing The Damned or Nitzer Ebb anytime soon. Conversely, the little bit I paid attention to the others, I'd say Alt Nation and Lithium were truer to the charter of their old XM counterparts. Although these channels always play Green Day and Social D's "Ball and Chain" which fit into almost any format, so they can act like they have a harder edge. I'll let ya know if I hear "Ring of Fire" by Social Disorder.

Thank God though, a punk channel is back. And pick an artist, they have a channel. I now get Margaritaville, Bruce Springsteen, Jam On, Little Steven's Garage, and the Grateful Dead 24 hours a day. I also get BBC Radio One and that's pretty cool, just because it's the BBC. Sports-wise, I picked up NBA play-by-play.

The station that I got to hear all of Sarah Palin's speeches live, POTUS '08, has changed to POTUS. So, I liked it that the channel has remained. And I picked up an NPR channel, as well.

I'll be listening to see what else has changed.

Meal of Links

Dave Grohl will be a judge on a Thanksgiving version of "Top Chef". I hope he screams.

Malcolm Gladwell has another book coming out. A long read about him.

The Raconteurs have gone goofy with "From Old to Gold". Cool song from the last album, so I'm not sure what they are promoting.

Looks like HBO is hooking up with Anthony Kiedis. I could get into that story.

A short history of the bagel. I went to Bruegger's today. I ask you, why are they so expensive there?

Smoking movies. Cannot believe "Good Night and Good Luck" is not on this list. And where is "Cold Turkey"?

Old: Red vs. Blue. New: Educated vs. People Easily Fooled by Propaganda.

Nate Silver talks about his new found stardom. FiveThirtyEight was really the go-to site for all of the election polling. Plus, when you hear fantasy baseball geeks talk about PECOTA, well, Nate invented that, too. And don't forget, we still have three Senate races going, so Nate's still got it going on.

Fox cancelled "Mad TV". This show was really strange. Sometimes it was absolutely hilarious, other times it was pretty embarrassing.

Exercise Yard

Herb Score died yesterday. What can you say about Herb? The man watched more bad baseball than any human deserved to endure. Look at some of the players he had to chronicle on a daily basis for over three decades. I mean, Joe Lis? Seriously, his only claim to fame was he could sign his name twice as fast as Jack Brohamer.

Here are some of the funnier things I remember about Herbie. I once heard some local wag, after hearing Score for probably the millionth time, claim his first words out of the womb were probably, “Throw to first, back safely.” I recall driving back from Columbus one time and tuning in the Tribe on the radio. Channeling Feagler, you kinda did that sort of thing back then. Anyhow, the Indians are playing the Oakland A’s and had the catchers, Mickey Tettleton and Terry Steinbach, at the time. Herb called the Oakland catcher, “Mickey Tettlebach”, for only about six innings before correcting himself. (I believe that was in the PD today, I actually heard that as it happened.) And finally, his call in the 1997 ALCS of the go-ahead homer by Tony Fernandez in extra innings against Baltimore, “And the Indians are going to the World Series…Maybe.” Herb forgot they were in Baltimore and had the bottom of the inning to get through. But everyone loved the guy.

It was a crime the liner off the bat of Yankee Gil McDougald that hit him in the eye started his downfall from what, early on, looked like a surefire Hall of Fame career, as this SI cover story from 1955 attests. He was really that good, piling up the strikeouts at a record pace and being mentioned with the all-time greats at a young age. Here’s a look at the early comeback in 1958 and a quite painful read of when it’s obvious he had nothing left as a pitcher in 1961.
















Truly a sad time for all Tribe fans.

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