Randy Michaels' List Of Forbidden Words: Tribune CEO From Cincinnati Bans The Likes Of 'Diva' And 'Officials'

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- "Bare naked" is as rough as it gets. There's not a dirty word on Randy Michaels' list. It's a pedestrian lot -- including "pedestrian," which the CEO considers unsuitable for public airwaves. The former Cincinnati broadcast executive -- he made 700 WLW-AM and Clear Channel into powerhouses -- has ordered 119 phrases and words never to be spoken on WGN radio, Tribune's flagship in Chicago. News of the Michaels ban, along with the entire list of offenders, comes from Robert Feder at Vocalo.org. Feder sees WGN staffers as pawns in the hands of an over-bearing boss: "What's even more disturbing is that the CEO of a major institution would engage in such petty and insulting micromanaging of subordinates."

A memo from a station exec went out with the list. It says the point is to avoid "newsspeak," a word that's not on the list. Newsspeak means talking like an insider, or using jargon and language that isn't heard or used in everyday plain English. But the ban includes "alleged," a word that means to declare something took place without proof it actually happened. Alleged is a staple of crime beat reporting. Also sent packing: "undocumented alien," a phrase that indicates someone is, or is alleged (sorry Randy) to be in the U.S. without proper immigration paperwork. It is considered more precise -- and thus more accurate -- than the phrase illegal alien. Here's a sample of other things you shouldn't say in Chicago: Aftermath, auto accident, authorities, death toll, diva, folks, gunman, guys, incarcerated, legendary, manhunt, motorist, officials, pedestrian, perished, really, reportedly.

So the worst paragraph one could write might go as such: In the aftermath of an auto accident, the death toll included legendary diva Marie M. Marie who reportedly was a pedestrian when struck by a motorist who also perished, police officials said. Folks who saw the carnage said a team of state and federal authorities -- including the FBI -- were conducting a manhunt for a bandit who held up a nearby bank. Police confirmed the lone gunman recently had been incarcerated but escaped. Witnesses alleged the crash was caused by the chase. "Guys, if you catch him, you really need to lock him up," one of the onlookers told police at the scene.

Sluts and Sleaze: Tribune Co. Cooking Up TV Political Show With Two Cincinnati Hams

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- This is what passes for creativity in today's corporate media executive suites: Let's match Jerry Springer against Bill Cunningham in an unruly political debate show. They can rhetorically mudwrestle about which political party is responsible for Tiger Woods' tastes in women, which they did (see below). Springer is a liberal former Cincinnati mayor who made it big as the ringmaster of an afternoon TV freak show. He was famously reelected after he paid a hooker with a check. Cunningham is a Cincinnati radio talker who makes the most rabid conservatives on earth sound reasonable -- he may be to the right of the Taliban. Chicago-based Tribune Co. is experimenting with a pilot that is airing in Midwest markets. The first one was screened in Cincinnati Sunday night. Few noticed.

Blogger Chris Johnson caught the first show and his review said it wasn't much. Johnson wondered why anybody would think the broadcast world needs another talk show pitting a Democrat vs. a Republican. It's a tired concept that started on CBS' 60 Mnutes nearly 40 years ago, then gained traction on CNN's Crossfire, a show that came to grow so boring and predictably talking head the cable network killed it off. The Cincinnati Beacon spotted Johnson's post and linked to it, for which the Bellwether is grateful. Johnson was struck by the abject lack of reasoning displayed by Cunningham. It involved Tiger Woods:

"In perhaps the most incoherent moment of the show, Cunningham claimed that Lyndon Johnson is responsible for the whole Tiger Woods mess because Welfare took fathers out of the home. Therefore, children have had no role models in the home and have had to look to celebrities like Tiger Woods for inspiration.
The show closed with both of their hopes for the new year. Springer wants health care for all and Cunningham wants Obama to be impeached so Biden can become President. Can someone tell me why we need this show? Real conversations about important issues are already few and far between within the corporate media, I don’t think that we need more of this nonsense on the airwaves."

Tribune Co. Gets Serving Of Cincinnati Jelly Pudding: Hippie Rock Booster Frank Wood Is On The Board

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Frank Wood became a media mogul by running radio ads for zany products like negative-calorie cookies and an academy in Indianapolis that taught students how to speak with a haughty French accent. Not French, just the accent. There was even a pitch for the "White Rose and Lilac Virginity Restoration Clinic." The ads weren't real -- they filled up blank spots and made ears perk when he needed listeners.

Now the staid Tribune Co. that has been losing newspaper readers in Chicago, Los Angeles and suburban New York City is about to get a shot of creativity and entrepreneurial gusto from Ohio. Wood is joining the Chicago-based MSM giant's board of directors today as it goes private. It has been said many times he helped switch the FM band from elevator music to rock. Can he do something like that for newspapers?

Wood's trajectory is legendary -- he took his dad's classical music radio station WEBN-FM, 102.7 and turned it into an album-rock pioneer with an off-the-wall zest. Some say the early days of WEBN were the role model for the TV sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati." Wood used to do a show as Michael Xanadu and the segment was known as Jelly Pudding. The station is now owned by Clear Channel and it remains a ratings force in the industry.

Former WEBN newsman Rick Bird wrote this piece for the Cincinnati Post in 2002 when WEBN celebrated its 35th birthday. Bird captures the creativity that flowed freely at the time. Wood is Harvard and the University of Chicago, which trained him to be a lawyer. He does not have a repuation as a buttoned down character.

Randy Michaels, another Cincinnati broadcasting whiz, is becoming a Tribune Co. senior exec. Michael is a former deejay who assembled many of the pieces that became Clear Channel. Eventually, he and the chain parted company. Michaels was an early proponent of putting political talk shows on AM radio, a move that probably saved AM. With creative and risk-taking executives and directors like Michaels and Wood at Tribune Co., there may be a chance that a business built on dead trees can actually manage to find its way to a lively future.