Four years after his life publicly imploded, Troy Neff has returned to radio as a financial talk show host.

Neff’s unraveling began Dec. 10, 2008, with a road rage incident that resulted in his stabbing.

The next day, Clear Channel yanked his WCWA show.

After the stabbing, Neff vowed to be back on the air in 2009; however, his life — professionally and personally — continued to tank.

On Dec. 17, 2008, Toledo Free Press dropped his financial planning column for plagiarism.

Shortly after, he was charged with assault for the road rage incident.

Then in the early morning of Jan. 19, 2009, after an angry night of drinking, Neff got arrested for OVI (operating a vehicle while intoxicated) en route to his home in Curtice after almost running a police cruiser off the road.

Every incident resulted in media scrutiny that put Neff and his business, Advance Retirement Solutions, in peril. Not in the headlines was the news that his marriage was falling apart, his relationship with his daughter suffering.

“The marriage problems were already happening, but certainly nothing helped, especially at the end with all the drinking,” he said.

Four years later, Neff’s return to radio isn’t marked by resolution in all areas of his life. His divorce isn’t final; his relationship with his college-aged daughter is still on the mend.

Troy Neff

“I will always be working on that. The amends we make to certain people in our lives we make for the rest of our lives. I never abandoned her during that time, but between her mom and I, it was very difficult.”

Neff was engaged for a while, but it didn’t work out; he dates, but nothing overly serious. His biggest accomplishment since last being on air is his sobriety. He said he has not had a drink since his OVI.

“I have been four years sober now. I needed to get things in my past and have them far enough in my past,” the 44-year-old said.

This time Neff’s show is devoted to financial news, his specialty, and is not trying to be a combination of Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh, he said.

While this difference is notable, Neff is as open as ever and just as willing to say exactly what he thinks. He is tanner, fitter and more inked, too.

Fittingly, his new Clear Channel show is called “Rebel Financial Radio with Troy Neff.” The 30-minute show on WSPD airs Saturday at 6 a.m. and re-airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Like last time, Neff owns his show and pays for the air time. He hopes to attract new clients.

“Part of me being successful, both good and bad, was having a little bit of a chip on my shoulder,” said the Genoa High School graduate. “You weren’t supposed to be successful in the financial business getting there the way that I got there. Most of them went to college, and I don’t know if they like that I get to play in their stadium.”

‘This is a disease’

No one can accuse Neff of slacking. When he does something, he goes after it with every ounce of energy and passion he can muster. Even his fitness regimen (and three gym memberships) demonstrates this commitment. That’s why admitting he can’t drink responsibly is so hard.

“Being somebody like me who has had other success in business and such, you beat yourself up because people think that I don’t have the willpower. My willpower is as strong as anybody’s willpower. This is a disease.”

Neff started drinking as a teen, even to the point of blacking out. There were periods where he tried to get sober in his 20s and was fairly successful for a few years. When Neff lived in Michigan, he went to Alcoholics Anonymous for a bit. When he returned to Ohio, he made the mistake of not getting a new sponsor. He thought he could control his drinking. He can now say, “Not in any time in my life was I ever able to control it.”

Neff’s drink of choice was vodka. He would try many tricks to keep his drinking under control. If he only had a certain number of  drinks, he would be fine, he thought. If he had a certain type of alcohol, he could manage it.

“I started whenever my day was done. If my day was done at 4, 8 or 9, it didn’t matter. I would be out most weekdays to midnight or 2 a.m. and then I would be up at 4:30 a.m. on the radio. That was my day, every day. I don’t know how I did it. I was burning at both ends and in the middle.”

As a businessman and a biker, he is still around alcohol all the time. He can manage the temptation these days and said with certainty he will never have another drink.

“I believe that everyone is allowed a certain amount of alcohol in their life and I reached my allotment early,” he said. “It is about the environment you put yourself into. Some people are not comfortable being around it.”

Neff said the OVI was his “Come to Jesus moment.” He had driven back from Pittsburgh that day angry because Clear Channel had pulled his press pass for the Steelers playoff game. He went to Moe’s Place in Rossford and drank alone.

“It happens when you are ready. Sometimes things have to get bad enough for you to want change. Most people in their lives put up with a certain amount of things they rather not put up with; they don’t make a change until it gets bad enough.”

‘Just don’t do it again’

While drinking was not directly related to his road rage, Neff said it affected his mindset.

“He was spiraling pretty bad,” said his former producer Jeremy Baumhower. “I knew he had issues. I would hear his road rage on the phone at 5 a.m.”

On Dec. 10, Neff’s rage peaked. He was returning to his financial office in Perrysburg Township after helping the girls’ soccer team at Lake High School with weight training. Neff slammed on his brakes and honked at a man who had pulled out in front of him.

The out-of-towner, Jeffrey Hardeman, allegedly flipped him off. Arguing ensued, and Neff got out of his vehicle. Hardeman shoved him, he said, and Neff picked him up, slammed him to the ground and punched him.

“As I was getting up, I realized I had been stabbed,” Neff said. “I thought I was in a fist fight. I wasn’t beating the guy to an inch of his life.”

The next day, Michael S. Miller, editor in chief of Toledo Free Press, filled in as the guest host on Neff’s show. On pain meds from the stabbing, Neff called in to talk about his wounds and then said, “Apparently people got a memo at WSPD from Brian Wilson not to mention the story, not to mention my name at all today. I’d just like to say that Brian Wilson can go screw himself.”

Neff also sent an email to Wilson telling him “to go f*** himself.” Clear Channel owns WSPD in addition to WCWA and subsequently, his show was canceled.

“My clients really stuck by me and that meant everything. I reached out to so many when this happened,” Neff said. “I am good at what I do; I mean good. It had nothing to do with their accounts. Many of them have privately had DUIs. My clients gave me sympathy because of how big the story got blown up.

“They are yelling in their cars, minus the getting out, and thinking, ‘That could be me.’

“The clients were like, ‘Just don’t do it again.’”

Joe Clement, a financial adviser with Neff’s firm, said the staff worried about him but never thought about leaving him.

“There was no way any of us were going to turn our backs on him,” Clement said. “We have all had our problems; you don’t want to bail on someone. It wouldn’t be fair to our clients.”

Rebel with a cause

Neff always knew he wanted to return to radio; it was just a matter of when. After getting sober and completing his probation for his assault charge, which was reduced to disorderly conduct, Neff started to feel ready. When Neff heard Wilson had parted ways with Clear Channel, he thought it might be time to return.

“We are excited to have Troy Neff back,” said Kellie Holeman-Szenderski, regional market manager of Clear Channel Media & Entertainment, in an email statement. “He approached us with his show idea and we thought it would be a good fit for our weekend programming. Since Troy’s return we have received positive feedback from our listeners.”

Baumhower, who contributes a media column to Toledo Free Press, said he thinks Neff deserves this second chance. His previous show, “The Troy Neff Show,” was four hours a day Monday through Friday, which Neff said was too much. Baumhower said 30 minutes a week might not be enough.

“He is really smart and entertaining,” Baumhower said. “He had a bad spell, that was it. … The drive to win has always separated Troy.”

Neff said his market is made up of the people who firms like Merrill Lynch don’t want because they have less than a million dollars to invest. Listeners won’t hear him use the term “wealth” either.

“Show me one guy from Jeep who calls his money ‘wealth,”’ Neff said. “We don’t call our money wealth in Genoa. If you are talking about wealth, it means you probably aren’t talking about me. You are talking about rich people and I ain’t rich people.”

This is one reason Neff feels comfortable dressing more like himself these days. He used to ride his bike into work and then change into a suit with French cuffs. A few times he didn’t have time to change and no one objected, not even the 65-year-old widows.

“This is who I am. I feel like my clients respond. They feel comfortable when they come in with work boots and jeans because they are pipe fitters and work at Marathon; they are just regular people.”

Despite his rebellious streak, Neff said he was one of the few financial planners who pulled clients out of the market before the 2008 crash. When it comes to money, Neff plays it safe.

“We aren’t in the market now, we are in the minority,” Neff said. “I think another severe crash is coming. We are investing money, but not into stocks. Even though the market has went up, we are still not going to chase it. I believe there is going to be another big decline.”

Neff is optimistic the economy will eventually recover.

“I was lucky enough to manage money in the ’90s, which was the best decade ever after the best decade ever, which was the ’80s,” he said. “The past 12 years have been nowhere close to the best decade ever.

“I know this: When things were really good, they weren’t always going to stay that way, and when things are really bad, I know they won’t stay that way,” he said.

But are listeners ready to hear from Neff again?

“People love a comeback,” Neff said, confidently. “It was me doing what I had to do. Initially, I wanted it to turn around immediately. You want your life back. It just doesn’t happen like that. I didn’t know how long it would be.”

Tags: Brian Wilson, Clear Channel, Jeremy Baumhower, Michael S. Miller, Toledo Free Press, Troy Neff, WSPD

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 21st, 2013 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Radio.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It was a tumultuous year for the local media landscape in Toledo.

Changes started in January when longtime WUPW-TV Channel 36 anchor Laura Emerson left FOX Toledo for a larger news outlet in Paducah, Ky. Emerson had been with the station for 16 years, helping build it from the beginning as its first primary news anchor.

“I’m proud of the product we put on at FOX Toledo, but my previous two TV stations had morning, noon, multiple night newscasts. And it is helpful to have more coverage throughout the day, and I’m kind of excited to get back to that sort of a newsroom,” Emerson told Toledo Free Press at the time.

Toledo News Now

Shortly after Emerson left, FOX Toledo announced it would enter a shared services agreement with WTOL-11. The resulting merged newsroom, operating under the tagline Toledo News Now, debuted in April.

The announcement triggered a host of staffing changes, most notably FOX Toledo news anchor/executive producer Shaun Hegarty’s move to WTVG-TV on Channel 13, where he took a job as investigative reporter.

Hegarty said his transition has been smooth and his new job rewarding.

“In January, February, March, we were competitors,” Hegarty said. “I came over in April, but I was welcomed here right away and everyone seemed glad to have me on board, which made my transition much easier.

“It’s kind of amazing when you think back 12 months from today. It kind of blows your mind to think of where you were one year ago,” Hegarty said. “It was full steam ahead at FOX. I think at that point we knew Laura was leaving, but it was just kind of planning what would be the next step for the station. Then the whole thing gets pulled out from under you.

“But that’s the business and to land back on my feet three days later at the No. 1 place in town, that’s kind of unheard of in this business and I feel very fortunate in that respect. How many times do you get cut from a team and then end up on the first-place team? It just doesn’t happen. It’s really incredible and I feel very fortunate to have landed at a station like this.”

1370 WSPD

In November, controversial talk-radio host, program director and news director Brian Wilson abruptly parted ways with 1370 WSPD followed shortly by station general manager Andy Stuart.

Wilson declined to discuss the separation or his future plans, citing terms of the separation.

In a comment on his Facebook page at the time, Wilson said, “I am glad to have had the opportunity to preach the gospel of freedom and liberty to Northwest Ohio. Wish I had the chance on the air to say thank you and goodbye to my listeners. I will continue to make every effort to spread the message of free markets and liberty.”

Andrew Z

Morning radio host Andrew Zepeda had perhaps the most turbulent year of all.

In March, despite ongoing legal issues stemming from a 2010 break-in Zepeda orchestrated at his former business, Cumulus Media promoted his morning show from tiny 100.7 The Vibe to a larger signal at Star 105.

In June, the station awarded the show a multiyear contract through December 2015.

But in October, Wood County judge Alan Mayberry ruled that Zepeda had violated the terms of his two-year intervention in lieu of conviction period by participating in a celebrity boxing match fundraiser at which alcohol was present. The violation terminated his intervention program, resulting in three felony convictions — theft, complicity to breaking and entering, and failure to remit sales tax — on charges related to the 2010 break-in.

Zepeda was sentenced Dec. 20 to 30 days in jail starting Jan. 21 and five years community control, including no bars or alcohol.

On Dec. 26, Zepeda was abruptly fired by Cumulus along with his team, including wife Michelle Zepeda. Cumulus Toledo General Manager Matt Spaulding declined to comment on the termination, but said Cumulus has not yet decided on a replacement show. Zepeda also declined comment.

Lawsuit

Toledo’s print media outlets are not immune to turbulence.

The Blade and Toledo Free Press continue to work through an October 2011 lawsuit filed by Block Communications Inc. on behalf of The Blade alleging Toledo Free Press publisher Thomas F. Pounds breached the separation agreement he entered into after he resigned in 2004 as general manager of The Blade.

Toledo Free Press LLC filed a countersuit in December 2011.

Andrew Zepeda, left, and the "Andrew Z in the Morning" crew at Star 105, including, from top center, Calen Savidge, Donny Palicki, Michelle Zepeda and Brandon Doriot, were fired by Cumulus Dec. 26. Toledo Free Press File Photo by Joseph Herr.

Tags: 1370 WSPD, Andrew Z, Andy Stuart, Brian Wilson, Laura Emerson, Newsmakers 2012, Shaun Hegarty, Star 105, Toledo News Now

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2012 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Community, Media.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Due to a postal mix-up, I have been receiving letters originally directed to another overweight guy with a white beard. Unlike “Miracle of 34th Street,” these deliveries do not, however, constitute irrefutable proof that I’m the one, the only … well, you know. I did receive a pleasant note from the real big guy though, after forwarding these efforts on to him. (We often visit near year’s end to compare diet goals and white beard grooming tricks). He said that if any of them seemed amusing, I had permission to use them.

I have been looking at a stack of letters I purposely set aside — Santa letters sent by and on behalf of members of Toledo’s government.

A membership to Toastmasters was on a list for Councilman Phil Copeland. Evidently an improvement in public speaking skills is seen not only as a gift to Mr. Copeland’s future in politics as Lucas County Recorder, where he will have to speak for an entire agency, but also a gift in time and translation for the local media and his co-workers, no matter what capacity he serves in.

Speaking of enhancements, there were requests for Santa to bring Councilman Steve Steel a gift certificate for self-defense lessons. I guess many still feel that if he’s going to insist on fighting outside of his weight class, giving him the gift of some martial arts techniques (maybe even ninja skills) might come in handy. There was likewise no shock over requests for adding the book “Basic Debate, Student Edition” to his stocking.

Speaking of books and stockings, there were letters to put a special copy of the Toledo City Charter in Councilman Tyrone Riley’s fireplace-hung footwear. It would be special because Santa would ensure that areas regarding conflict of interest and abstaining in a vote of council were highlighted.

Tom Waniewski

There were a number of requests for a gift for Tom Waniewski as well. Santa has been asked to deliver a few more people with math skills and common sense to join him on Council. Apparently the hope in such a gift is to slow down the juggernaut of regulation, taxation and funding allocation that seems to be running rampant through Council these days. Mr. Waniewski is a Republican, however, and has therefore been on the Naughty List for some time. Despite putting a good word in for him in my North Pole missive, it’s likely he’ll see little beyond a lump of coal.

Many thought that D. Michael Collins had received his present from Santa early, when media nemesis Brian Wilson left the airwaves at 1370 WSPD. Apparently, this was not the only item on his list. My favorites were a Junior Detective Kit for his investigations and a spotlight that could be mounted in council chambers to shine on him whenever he speaks.

Speaking of multiple requests and multiple gifts, there is evidently a groundswell effort using missives to Santa to get Lindsay Webb a whole park. Evidently the thought is that if she had a park of her own, named after her, and with night basketball and swimming programs going on there year-round, she’d leave the rest of the city alone. The word I heard from the North Pole is that you have to be really nice to get such a special gift, and that Councilwoman Webb has been, at best, substantially compliant.

Young Councilman Adam Martinez is also someone who has multiple item requests to Santa. The first is for a really good day planner under his tree. Having missed several Council meetings in 2012 after missing 19 in 2011, I guess he or someone on his behalf figured a better way of tracking his schedule might be of benefit.

George Sarantou

Councilman George Sarantou is asking for one of those Charles Atlas kits that you used to see in the comic books. A longtime member of City Council who is about to be term-limited out, Mr. Sarantou has run for higher office more than once, and each time had a bit of sand kicked in his face. Considered a 97-pound weakling, mostly because of his affiliation with a county Republican Party that weighs even less, this latest soul-sucking loss to a far less qualified candidate in Councilman Phil Copeland for the County Recorder’s office was apparently the last straw in sending off the request. Expect Councilman Sarantou to do a lot of heavy lifting before announcing another effort for higher office.

The most interesting of the letters that I saw was from Councilwoman Paula Hicks-Hudson. It seems that she was sent Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak and has had a heck of a time getting anyone to notice her ever since. She was writing to the North Pole to ask why she had been sent the cloak in the first place, and if it might be possible for Santa to take it back without holding it against her. There are rumors (and I’m not saying about who) that certain members of Council sent letters to Santa on her behalf, as they were unwilling to share the limited limelight of Council meetings with her.

The letters for Councilman Rob Ludeman were rather unique. He has been on City Council for a long time and was even president for a while, but Mr. Ludeman has seemed inconsistent over the years, sometimes seeming like a Republican and sometimes like a Democrat. This voting record seems to have left the Councilman (much like the local Republican Party that endorses him) stuck on the political Island of Misfit Toys from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Unlike “Survivor,” this made-for-TV island is one he wouldn’t mind some help from Santa in being voted off.

Mike Craig

I looked for a letter to Santa mentioning Councilman Mike Craig, but couldn’t find one. Apparently when you are a former civil servant and now a public servant who has a strong family and union background, including service as a UAW union steward, there’s nothing that Santa can bring you that unions and the Lucas County Democratic Party can’t. There were rumors that Mr. Craig writes no letters because he found out that the elves refused to organize, but I haven’t been able to confirm that locally or at the North Pole.

Santa seems to have found only one request for City Council’s President Joe McNamara in the letters he’s received. While Mr. McNamara’s young political career seems as well-favored as anyone’s, he may be suffering from comparisons to another local Democratic politician of youthful appearance and legal training who once put his political stamp on Toledo.  By now most of you realize that Mr. McNamara might in fact be suffering from “Konop Regional Antipathy Problems.” As it did for the original victim and long-time carrier, this condition can doom even the best political efforts of a candidate, no matter how well-intentioned the ideas or well-connected the family. Santa tells me that regardless of being on the Nice list (after all, he’s not an evil Republican), there may be problems even Santa can’t fix with a box and a bow.

Last, but not least, Mayor Mike Bell didn’t have a lot on his list this year, but there have been a couple of requests on his behalf to get the Ghostbusters in town to service One Government Center. Like Ebenezer in “A Christmas Carol,” the mayor may have been recently haunted by the spirits of former mayors Jack Ford and Carty Finkbeiner (both now asking Santa to put Mr. Ford in Phil Copeland’s soon-to-be-vacant Council seat).

These efforts are not so much hauntings, as attempted demonic possessions. There’s now concern that the fiscally conservative practices from early in Mr. Bell’s term have been taken over by the spendthrift “three-card monte” spending that his predecessors were famous for. I’m told that such things may be beyond even the ability of Santa, but that he’s at least trying to arrange a visit by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Harold Ramis for the pilot for their new reality show, “Celebrity Exorcism.”

Tim Higgins blogs at justblowingsmoke.blogspot.com.

Tags: Adam Martinez, Brian Wilson, Carty Finkbeiner, D. Michael Collins, George Sarantou, Jack Ford, Joe McNamara, Just Blowing Smoke, Lindsay Webb, Mike Bell, Paula Hicks-Hudson, Phil Copeland, Rob Ludeman, Steve Steel, Tim Higgins, Toledo City Council, Tom Waniewski, Tyrone Riley

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2012 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Featured, Just Blowing Smoke, Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It is a sad irony that Brian Wilson left the Toledo radio market just as two of his political adversaries, Jack Ford and Carty Finkbeiner, were muscling their way back into the headlines.

Wilson’s seven-year tenure on 1370 WSPD ended at 5:58 p.m. Nov. 9, although neither he nor his listeners knew it at the time. There was no goodbye, no final show, no mention of the exit on subsequent programming. The erasure of his seven years of work is an example of the brutal disposability that characterizes modern media.

Wilson did not spend one minute of airtime trying to endear himself to Toledo. He arrived in 2006, summed up the market’s political and media shortcomings, and tore his teeth into the sacred cows that have long conspired to keep Toledo mired in mediocrity. Wilson never used the rhetorical spoonful of sugar; he took the spoon and tried to shove it sideways up the clenched bottoms of some of Toledo’s least productive politicians and media personalities. That approach did not make him friends in the existing power structure, and it must have further infuriated the powers that be that Wilson wore his lack of empathy for mediocrity as a badge of honor.

Behind the scenes, Wilson could be a fearsome, explosive presence, a man who would share his radio experience like a kindly mentor one moment and then slash you to ribbons for a real or imagined offense the next.

Wilson’s legacy can be neatly summed up by the enemies who rushed to gloat over his absence in the predictably slanted  Nov. 13 Blade article that recorded his exit. Ford. Finkbeiner. Jon Stainbrook. If those champions of mediocrity make up the confederacy of dunces capering over Wilson’s exit, he must have done something right.

The 2006 incident in which Wilson led an effort to literally put his shoulder against a door Finkbeiner was trying to close at a One Government Center news conference stands as the greatest act of First Amendment defense in modern Toledo history. Those who dismissed it as a stunt missed the point and exposed their own ignorance of the frailty of freedom in general and free speech in particular.

Wilson’s criticism of The Blade, which made mine look like pillow talk, hardened to a diamond point after the newspaper’s Jan. 8, 2011, story, “WSPD host compares TPS students, monkeys; Wilson denies racism.”

The article read, “A radio talk show host’s reference to ‘little monkeys’ while talking about students at Toledo Public Schools on Friday generated outrage that the language was insensitive to African-American students, and all students.”

The Blade writer played an edited version of a radio clip for public officials who called for Wilson to be disciplined. I obtained the full version of the clip and wrote that the version played for sources by The Blade “did not include the setup, in which Wilson criticized the concept of teaching through repetition without teaching independent thinking, nor did it include this crucial next sentence: ‘Similarly with children, just because you can teach them the answers to what are the capitals of the 50 states in America, that’s a fun exercise but it doesn’t teach them how to think, doesn’t teach them how to be objective, doesn’t teach them to be entrepreneurs and individuals and things along that order.’”

I had the full clip played for the public officials The Blade had spoken to and most retracted their original stances. In a subsequent editorial, The Blade stated that Wilson had not called TPS students monkeys, and the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists honored my coverage of the episode with a 2012 Best in Show award for Best Defense of the First Amendment.

Toledo is a market in which the role of a newspaper is greatly misunderstood and journalism abuses are tolerated as routine. This incident gave Wilson credibility as a survivor of one of the worst examples of that abuse and further motivated his anger at the source of that abuse and the people who complacently support it.

Wilson modeled WSPD as one of the region’s only electronic media watchdogs. His criticism was often wrapped in a contempt that turned off people who could have benefited from his message; that contempt often manifested itself in name-calling that undermined his effectiveness. His move to Virginia also gave critics ammunition against him.

But for Wilson, rankling the powers that be was part of his performance art. He would never apologize for the coarseness, nor should he. A watchdog can’t lie down with the thieves it is supposed to guard against. For seven years, Wilson helped expose the political criminals for who they are. In his absence, those forces will feel emboldened and freer to perpetrate their evils.

There are many who will cheer Wilson’s exit. I understand that. But I also know that the perimeter is now weaker, that there is one fewer watchdog guarding the fence. That is not to be celebrated. It is to be observed as one marks the passing of a fellow soldier, the one who wasn’t popular in the safety of the barracks but who was the one you wanted beside you in the trenches when the bullets started flying.

Wilson was old-school, employing indignation and fearlessness as tools to chip away at ignorance.

The forces of mediocrity may believe they won this round, and they will never accept that our city benefited from Wilson’s work. As they rush to fill the vacuum his absence leaves, know that the loss of even one watchdog leaves the entire property more vulnerable.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Brian Wilson, Lighting The Fuse, Michael Miller, The Blade, WSPD

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2012 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

From a news release: “Veteran talk host Brian Wilson and Clear Channel have parted ways. Wilson served as Program Director, News Director and afternoon host for NewsTalk 1370 WSPD/Toledo for more than seven years. Wilson is well-known for his Vacation Relief Services company as well as his past talk gigs at WABC/New York, KSFO/San Francisco, WRC/Washington, and WGST/Atlanta. In a comment on his Facebook page Wilson said, “I am glad to have had the opportunity to preach the gospel of freedom and liberty to Northwest Ohio. Wish I had the chance on the air to say thank you and goodbye to my listeners. I will continue to make every effort to spread the message of free markets and liberty.”

Tags: Brian Wilson, Clear Channel, WSPD

This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2012 at 11:24 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Radio.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Earlier this year I tried to bet 1370 WSPD’s Brian Wilson a dollar that the unemployment rate would be below 8 percent by November because no president has been re-elected with unemployment over 8 percent. Brian, being the student he is of politics and economics, wouldn’t take the bet.

This past week, the government came out with the unemployment rate for the month of September.  The number surprised most people, coming in at 7.8 percent compared to 8.1 percent for August.  I should be a dollar richer now.

Now, I don’t normally lean very strongly toward conspiracy theories because I’m not sure you could get two bureaucrats to agree that it is daylight outside, let alone agree to cook a large set of numbers with many people involved and publish the results. That being said, there is something fishy about these numbers. Even by the most liberal standards of the mathematically inept, the sum simply doesn’t add up.

Let’s take a look at some of the data surrounding the conclusion.

• A survey of 50,000 households is used to determine the rate.
• 78.8 percent of the 2.184 million household jobs created this year happened in the months of January and September.
• September’s number was 873,000, of which exactly 66 percent were part-time for “economic reasons.”
• The sampling error for the above number is plus or minus 280,000 jobs.
• Households in inner cities are purposely not surveyed due to higher minority unemployment.
• The Obama administration announced that 114,000 jobs were created last month.
• The U-6 number was unchanged at 14.7 percent.
• The sampling error for U-6 is plus or minus 100,000 jobs.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) had new software installed in August to seasonally adjust the numbers.
• The labor force shrank by 2.648 million year over year in September.
• The age 20-24 sector had a September positive increase of 310,000, seasonally adjusted to 380,000, for the first time in history.  Until 2012, this has always been a negative number.

Does all of this add up to a conspiracy to get President Obama re-elected?  I don’t know.  I doubt it.  But it does add up to a series of changes in how the numbers are put together that make it possible to skew the results.

They just don’t add up.  The BLS publishes the numbers used to determine the U-3, and yet they must be using different numbers.  The size of the labor force grew by 418,000 in September.  In 2009 the labor force was about 160 million people, today it is about 155 million.  As Mitt Romney stated, “If the same share of people were participating in the workforce today as on the day the president got elected, our unemployment rate would be around 11 percent.”

If you start to count all of the people who are “permanently discouraged workers” we reach a rate of close to 24 percent!

So to sum up, the U-3 number is 7.8 percent, the U-6 number is 14.7 percent and the total number of all of the above plus the permanently discouraged is 24 percent.

Recently, it also came out that a couple of the economists and the BLS both contributed to President Obama.  I don’t give this any thought because 1) they can contribute to whomever they want, 2) it would take a lot more than two people to manipulate all of this data and 3) I am sure there are economists out there who probably contributed to the Romney campaign as well.

Finally, why am I talking about all of this and what does it have to do with how you invest your money and plan for the future?  The most important aspect of this is to not let numbers and headlines such as these influence your decisions without digging deeper into the reports and the numbers.  I know that not many people are math geeks but it doesn’t take any more math than balancing your checkbook to see through these numbers and know that they don’t add up.

Look at how the market reacted when the news hit. First it was up significantly and then it came back down as the day went on. First it was a reaction to the headline and then the action based on the reality, (or the un-reality) of the numbers.  Most importantly, look around you and see what the economy is doing and form your judgments from there.

Gary L. Rathbun is the president and CEO of Private Wealth Consultants, LTD. He can be heard every day on 1370 WSPD at 4:06 p.m. on “After the Bell with Brian Wilson and the Afternoon Drive” and every Wednesday and Thursday evening at 6 throughout Northern Ohio on “Eye on Your Money.” He can be reached at (419) 842-0334 or email him at garyrathbun@privatewealthconsultants.com.

Tags: A View from the Gulch, Brian Wilson, Gary Rathbun, WSPD

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2012 at 2:18 pm and is filed under A View from the Gulch, Toledo Business Link.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I was raised to believe that anyone could be president of the United States. Certainly in my lifetime, the ascendencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush seemed to bolster that theory.

But with the news that President Barack Obama is nearing $1 billion in campaign funds, with challenger Mitt Romney not far behind, I wonder how true that once-bedrock American belief is. Would either of my two sons ever be in a position to access $1 billion? By the time they will be old enough to run, 30 years from now, $1 billion will seem like a quaint little figure.

Would I ever want either of my sons to be president? To experience the rancor, the lies and the open hatred many of our politicians endure?

Would I want to open a newspaper every day and see attacks, lies and attempts to destroy their characters and neutralize any chance they had at effectiveness?

As the election nears, media bias is an ongoing and legitimate concern. As a working journalist, I pay close attention to how local media cover politics. The inexorable acrimony that divides so many Americans has become an accepted element of the discussion; that is clearly seen in the rise of such media outlets as FOX News and MSNBC. More people seem to gravitate to news sources that present the side they believe in, thus depriving themselves of opposing viewpoints and messages.

How does this division and side-taking translate to local media? To investigate, Toledo Free Press commissioned researcher Mary McCartney to study the LexisNexis database and local media websites  (The Blade, Toledo Free Press, 13abc, WTOL/FOX and WNWO NBC)  to determine whether our hometown media have taken sides in Obama vs. Romney.

Our research studied the period from June 1, 2012 — the week Romney sewed up the GOP nomination with a Texas primary win — through Oct. 3, 2012, just after the first presidential debate. The focus was on which candidate dominated the reporting of each published or broadcast story — which candidate was discussed in more depth, with more words — than his opponent. Each story was determined to fall into one of three categories: Balanced, Obama or Romney. We focused on campaign-specific stories, discounting news coverage of Obama’s presidency if the story did not invoke the campaign. We included opinion columns and analysis pieces alongside news stories, under the belief that total presentation of each candidate was important.

We did not attempt to characterize the tenor of the coverage; judging slant, positive or negative, takes the conversation down a subjective road, far from any empirical analysis. Our study guides you through each media outlet’s volume of coverage. It is up to you to determine if that coverage is fair to your chosen candidate.

Television stations

The broadcast media were firmly entrenched in balanced reporting. All three stations relied on Associated Press reports for website pieces of any depth (as defined by word count); local reporting was limited to local candidate visits.

• WNWO NBC presented 34 Balanced stories, 34 Obama stories and 34 Romney stories, a perfect balance for a total of 102 stories. A check of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) database shows WNWO President/CEO Chris Topf has donated to the National Associaiton of Broadcasters Political Action Committee (PAC), but not to any specific candidate.

• WTOL/FOX Toledo included 11 Balanced stories, 17 Obama stories and 24 Romney stories, leaning GOP in its total of 52 stories. An FEC check shows WTOL General Manager Bob Chirdon has donated to the Liberty Corporation Federal PAC, but not to any specific candidate.

• WTVG 13abc offered 8 Balanced stories,  11 Obama stories and 8 Romney stories, leaning slightly Democratic in its total of 27 stories. FEC records do not show that WTVG General Manager John Christianson has donated to any specific candidate.

Adding it all up, Toledo’s TV stations offered 53 balanced stories, 62 Obama stories and 66 Romney stories for a relatively fair total of 181 stories.

Toledo Free Press

Although Toledo Free Press is certainly more conservative-leaning than The Blade, I was surprised to see the results of our study. Toledo Free Press presented 4 Balanced stories, 5 Obama stories and 12 Romney stories for a total of 21 articles. I was surprised because, working with Toledo Free Press Managing Editor Sarah Ottney and News Editor Brigitta Burks, we have striven to cover Obama and Romney appearances equally. Looking at the details, the source of the disparity is clear. Opinion pieces by conservative writers Tim Higgins, Thomas Berry, Gary Rathbun and Dock David Treece tip our content way in Romney’s favor. I do not apologize for any of our writers’ opinions, but it does help to be aware of the specifics in the gap in our opinion content.

The FEC database shows no donations from Toledo Free Press Publisher Tom Pounds or Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller.

The Blade

Given Blade Publisher and Editor-in-Chief John Block’s open endorsement of Obama (remember the 2008 Page One Blade photo of Block giddily reaching to embrace then-candidate Obama?), his 2008 donation to Obama for America and his attendance as one of very few guest list media people at the March 14, 2012 State Dinner for U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, combined with his newspaper’s stalwart liberal philosophy, it would not be surprising to see Obama dominate The Blade’s campaign coverage. And the numbers do show a disparity.

During our study, The Blade reported 56 Balanced stories, 86 Obama stories and 62 Romney stories for a total of 204 articles. The total contains some interesting trends by reporters, presumably covering specific beats. Blade reporter Jim Provance has been credited for 8 Balanced stories, 28 Obama stories and 9 Romney stories; reporter Tom Troy has a byline count of 22 Balanced stories, 25 Obama stories and 36 Romney stories. All other Blade writers had numbers relatively evenly divided between the two candidates.

FEC records do not show any candidate donations by John Block during this election cycle. Block Communications Chairman Allan Block has donated to Romney for President Inc. and the National Republican Congressional Committee. He is also a contributor to Republicans Sen. Rob Portman, Rep. Bob Latta and U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel, and Democrat Rep. Marcy Kaptur.

WSPD 1370 AM

In tracking WSPD (disclosure: I host a pop culture radio show for WSPD, for no compensation), which features a conservative lineup led by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and local hosts Brian Wilson and Fred LeFebvre, an interesting trend emerges. Obviously, the station mentions Obama and Romney with a frequency too great to count during the course of four months. FEC records do not list any donations from General Manager Andy Stuart. But WSPD is the only local news source that consistently covers Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Johnson has been a guest on the station’s local shows and his platform has been regularly discussed in-depth on its airwaves.

To contrast, Toledo Free Press has mentioned Johnson once during the study period. Another review of The Blade for the four-plus months examined showed only three mentions of the Libertarian candidate. Two of those mentions were in passing; one article reported on the visit to Toledo by his vice presidential candidate, Jim Gray, and the main theme of the story was the candidate’s position on same-sex marriage. A study of local television websites shows a number of Associated Press articles.

Summation

Across all media reporting in Toledo, it appears the press tends to slightly lean in favor of the president, with an attempt at balanced reporting across all the organizations. There were 406 stories total: 113 Balanced, 153 Obama and 140 Romney. So while national media may clearly be divided by bias, at least locally, in this study, we can be pleased to have a relatively balanced media.

Unless you’re a Gary Johnson fan.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: 13abc, Allan Block, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bob Latta, Brian Wilson, Dock David Treece, Fred LeFebvre, Gary Johnson, Gary Rathbun, George W. Bush, Glenn Beck, Jim Provance, John Block, Josh Mandel, Lighting The Fuse, Marcy Kaptur, Michael S. Miller, Mitt Romney, Rob Portman, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, The Blade, Thomas Berry, Tim Higgins, Toledo Free Press, Tom Pounds, Tom Troy, WNWO NBC, WTOL

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2012 at 12:00 am and is filed under Featured, Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

From left, Jeff McGinnis, James A. Molnar and Jim Beard in the WSPD studio.

Tags: Brian Wilson, Comics, Eye on Your Weekend, Film, James A. Molnar, James Molnar, Jeff McGinnis, Jim Beard, Michael S. Miller, Movies, Pop Culture, Radio, The Gold Knight, Toledo Free Press Star, TV, WSPD

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 at 9:52 am and is filed under Radio, Star.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Michael S. Miller and Tom Pounds

Tags: Brian Wilson, Feed Lucas County Children, Jeff McGinnis, Michael S. Miller, Society of Professional Journalists, The Blade, Toledo Free Press, Toledo Free Press Star, Tom Pounds, Vicki L. Kroll, WSPD

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2012 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Community, Media.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

On Friday, July 13, President Barack Obama made several outrageous statements that very quickly became the “shot heard ’round the world” for private business owners in this country. To quote: “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help … If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

The implication is that we would have nothing were it not for government. I own my company at the leisure of the federal government and it is only because of this largess that I am allowed to exist and make the money I make. Anyone who has ever started their own business and worked and sacrificed to make it grow knows the ignorance of that statement.

In my case, the emotion is not anger but pity. This administration and most of Congress don’t know anything about business — and worse, they don’t know that they don’t know. It is what we call the unconscious incompetent. This is a very dangerous state of mind.

It is from these statements and the following outrage that an article was penned by local talk show host Brian Wilson of 1370 AM WSPD. The article, on lewrockwell.com, is titled, “John Galt Day! Why Not?”

In the article, Wilson makes the suggestion that on the 30-day anniversary of Obama’s statements, all of us essentially go on strike for the day. We close our business for the day, we don’t buy anything and starve the government of our production and taxes for one day.

Sure, there are some practical issues that we have to consider. I want the hospital to be open in case I need it, etc. Wilson also points out that the mega stores and chains probably won’t participate but that doesn’t mean we can’t make a statement anyway.

It has been said that all it takes is a small group of committed individuals to make a change, indeed that is all that ever has been needed. Let’s begin the revolution on Aug. 13 and as Wilson suggested, make it two days in September and so on until they get the message.

As you may or may not know, John Galt is the fictional character in Ayn Rand’s epic novel “Atlas Shrugged.” John Galt is the representation of man’s mind, the ultimate source of wealth and production.

In the book, he reaches a point where government, the ultimate moocher, decides that it is entitled to the product of the producers to redistribute to society as it deems appropriate.

Sound familiar? Isn’t it a good idea to spread the wealth around a little? After all, you didn’t really produce anything without the help of government anyway, right?

Galt decides that the only thing that government cannot take from him is his mind, so he goes on strike and convinces other producers to go on strike with him and retreat to Galt’s Gulch (that might clue you in to the origin of the name of this column).

Now, can I do what I do without the help of many other people? Of course not! But I pay for those services and materials and those people are given a choice to work with me or not. I need to provide a valuable service that is worth the cost or no one will pay me.

The government has created nothing and it provides nothing without confiscating money from the producers at the point of a gun.

I personally go on strike a little each day. I refuse to purchase compact florescence bulbs, I won’t do business with companies that make their money by lobbying for favors and advantages. I don’t have solar panels on my house. I carry a gun. I set my air conditioning where I want it and pay the electric bill myself. I refuse to be afraid of anything that the government says I should be. I use salt and sugar. I use the elevator instead of the stairs.

I have a car with real horsepower and I drive it. I don’t get a flu shot. I drink water out of my own well. Every day I look at what I can do to be self-sufficient and rely on my own judgment as to what is best for me.

Join us in celebrating John Galt Day on Aug. 13.

And every day, rely on your own mind to create your best life.

Gary L. Rathbun is the president and CEO of Private Wealth Consultants, Ltd. He can be heard every day at 4:06 p.m. on After the Bell with “Brian Wilson and the Afternoon Drive,” and every Wednesday and Thursday evening at 6 throughout Northern Ohio on “Eye on Your Money.” He can be reached at (419) 842-0334 or email him at garyrathbun@privatewealthconsultants.com.

Tags: A View from the Gulch, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Barack Obama, Brian Wilson, Gary Rathbun, John Galt, WSPD

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2012 at 12:00 pm and is filed under A View from the Gulch, Toledo Business Link.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.