Why do we worship false idols?

The king of Twin Cities media, Jason DeRusha, wanted everyone to know how he, and others like him, are taken advantage of periodically by event organizers who recruit the likes of DeRusha to emcee their big event.

DeRusha, the male morning mouthpiece for the local CBS affiliate, wanted everyone to know his list of gripes when it comes to his good deeds. And without going back to read them, my memory is that he had legitimate gripes. I'm not going to stop to read it again, but you can.

DeRusha is among those who are called upon to emcee events periodically. More on that in a minute. His gripes included not being compensated for the cost of parking, not being purchased a glass of wine for his effort, being asked to show up two-and-a-half hours before his duties begin, having his name mispronounced, being expected to help generate media coverage of the event and being expected to put asses in the seats. There were a couple I'm not remembering.

His gripes were legit, and explained thoroughly. I enjoyed the piece. I had no idea that TV people were being taken advantage of by organizations looking for an emcee.

But it made me wonder, why is it that society idolizes broadcasters every time an organization is holding an event?

I get it, you need somebody to emcee a program about the organization, be it a charity raising cash or a foundation passing out awards. You need somebody who speaks clearly, succinctly and isn't afraid to speak in front of a crowd. Some of our local news anchors and reporters, on TV or radio, fit that description. So they get asked to do so. But why?

The obvious answer is that we treat them like celebrities because they are public figures. The two are not one in the same. But when we treat them like celebrities, we think it's precious and special when they appear in the flesh, and somehow we have been conditioned to think that an awards presentation is more important because Alix Kendall is reading the introductions.

In some cases the "celebrity" emcee is actually involved with the organization, so it's not such a stretch to have him or her emcee an event. If you're not lucky enough to have Don Shelby or Joe Schmit on your organization's board, then you try to get Frank and Amelia or Paul Douglas to emcee, as that somehow makes your gala or program more important.

Does anyone really buy a $75 ticket to an organization's fundraiser because Diana Pierce is the emcee? Does Belinda Jensen really put asses in the seats? I doubt it.

There are plenty of people – probably more than one affiliated with every nonprofit organization and charity in the metro – with the skill set necessary to emcee a gala. Yet the Twin Cities needs DeRusha to emcee 10 of them this month. (He made sure to let us know how in demand he is.)

I get why broadcasters are quick to jump on these invitations. I suspect there are several reasons, and any one or more of them are in play each time an invitation is extended. But seriously, is our world better because the annual fundraiser we attended was emceed by Rena Sarigianopoulos?

I wish this world would do DeRusha a favor and stop sticking him with the tab for parking. I think our charities would be just fine without him.

Keith Leventhal, we hardly knew ya

I don't know 10 things about Keith Leventhal, and it's likely you don't either.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, "Who's Keith Leventhal?"

For maybe two years Leventhal was the third-string quarterback at KARE-TV. By quarterback I mean sportscaster, of course.

Leventhal's stint in Minnesota was forgettable. He joins a long line of second and third bananas at local stations who moved on and were quickly forgotten.

I saw him anchor the weekend sports report a few times, I saw him file reports periodically for the sportscast and I saw him tweet insightful nuggets that make broadcast professionals so precious and special in society. Nothing he did blew me away. Actually everything he did was forgettable.

And that's how it should be.

We live in an era where we don't want news and information, we want infotainment. We don't want a stoic broadcaster reading the script, we want news nuggets with an extra side of personality. This is especially true when we watch the sportscast, since it's really just an entertainment report anyway.

We don't want to decide if a gesture was classy, a decision was boneheaded, a play was spectacular or a moment was unforgettable. We want our sportscasters to tell us, so we don't have to think for ourselves. It must be true, otherwise how do you explain why Mark Rosen still has a job at WCCO-TV?

Leventhal didn't have the career clout to tell us what was despicable and what was admirable. And that was refreshing.

He didn't have bad hair or a childlike disposition, either, a la the current king of KARE-TV sports. Leventhal probably would have filled the role of man-child had his bosses asked him to. But they probably didn't, so he did what broadcasters do best, deliver the product without trying to outshine the veteran "talent" at KARE.

So what did he get for his two years of service as the disrespected, low man on the totem pole? Walking papers. Now I don't know this for a fact, I'm only guessing that the reason he has been unemployed is that somebody at KARE-TV didn't think he was gimmicky enough to fit in with the cast of "characters" they dress up in monkey suits and skirts to play the role of broadcasters.

Again, that's only speculation. Leventhal may have simply walked away and decided the circus peanuts he was earning for two years of toiling as the No. 3 sportscaster wasn't enough to update the wardrobe at Kohl's. For some it's easier to find a new job when you're not simultaneously trying to half-ass your way through the job you have.

But I'm betting on the former.

I only noticed he was gone when the station started using a news reporter to read the teleprompter during the weekend sportscasts. He wasn't a particularly notable presence on the station, obviously.

But like I said, it was refreshing to have a competent, knowledgeable sports reporter do his job on the station without annoying you with his banter, ugly mug or nails-on-chalkboard vocal stylings. He was too bland for his own good, and unlikely to move up the KARE food chain any time soon. So he's better off gone and quickly forgotten.

Lest you think that I have nothing but high praise for Leventhal, he's guilty of the same annoying characteristic every young broadcaster seems to be guilty of: he wants to dazzle you with his social media savvy. There's nothing wrong with that, as it's easy to ignore, but I remember distinctly how self-aware he was, and how quick he was to demonstrate it when he first rolled into town lo those many years ago. I quickly categorized him as another ego-driven, annoying broadcaster.

But by ignoring his social media pandering I came to appreciate the fact he wasn't Mark Rosen or Eric Perkins, and we could use a lot more broadcasters like Keith Leventhal in this town.

The charmed life of Paul Lambert

You've got to admire Paul "Meatsauce" Lambert.

I don't know the full story behind the rise of Lambert, but it's a great story. (I've heard the story behind his Meatsauce nickname, but I don't quite remember how it goes, and I have no interest in hearing it again.)

Here's my assessment of Lambert's schtick: You take a guy with mediocre, at best, broadcasting skills, add a dash of pudginess and top it with a little self-deprecation and somehow you get a success story that's too good to be true.

I don't remember how long it has been since Lambert found his way onto the KFAN airwaves, but he started as a bit player on the station's morning show, as best as I understand it. (I can't tolerate the morning show, so I rarely listen for more than 10 minutes.) Desperate for whatever minimal hourly wage the station was willing to pay him, seemingly, Lambert would show up anywhere and everywhere he could. Whenever there was a job to do later in the broadcast day, Lambert would stick around and fill the seat. He seemed to end up sitting in on Dan Barreiro's show most often.

As time went on Lambert became a prominent player on the KFAN morning show, despite the fact he seemed to play the fool most of the time. He has never developed a polished, competent on-air persona, but that doesn't seem to slow him down. It's as if people want to listen to a guy who sounds as if he has no business on a major market radio station.

As I noted, Lambert was a bit doughy. Nobody would describe him as debonair. But a few years ago he decided it was time to stop looking the part of a slob as he played the role of the doofus, so he started to lose weight. That hardly explained what happened next.

His improbable career in major market radio wasn't enough, evidently. Lambert pulled another horseshoe out of his rear end. He married the easy-on-the-eyes female sidekick of the local top 40 radio station this spring. Yep, a doughy guy with male pattern baldness is a cult figure in Twin Cities radio and married the cutesy sidekick at the neighboring station.

It's a fairy tale, I tell you.

Obviously I'm not in awe of Lambert's skills. Love them or hate them, most personalities on the radio have a quality and skill set that tells you they're a radio personality. Not Lambert. He continues to sound like a guy who is struggling through his first semester at a college radio station. And yet people seem to love him for it. If he's giving what the people want, there's nothing wrong with that. Those who don't enjoy his work can easily change the station.

I can appreciate the role of the dopey sidekick on a sports radio station, but the latest announcement about Lambert, via City Pages, can only make me laugh. He's going to be one of the on-air personalities for the horrible new "alternative" station KFAN's parent company, Clear Channel, is launching at 93.3 FM. So far the station is a painful joke of an alternative station, and having Lambert try to fill the role of one of the jocks should only cement my opinion of it.

I suspect Lambert will double dip. Clear Channel will likely pay him a few dollars over the paltry salary he receives for his work on KFAN and expose him to the non-sports audience. Perhaps those that love the milquetoast flavor of 93.3 will enjoy Lambert's bumbling, stumbling ways. Or perhaps Lambert will become the broadcast professional he presumably wanted to be all those years ago when he was a bit player on KFAN. Time will tell. Good luck to him. I won't be tuned in to 93.3, so it won't matter to me if he succeeds or fails.

Lest you think I simply want to slap Lambert on the back for his good fortune, I will note that the guy has skin as thin as Jeff Dubay. Lambert has no problem playing the fool or dishing out a heaping helping of self-deprecation, but as soon as somebody suggests anything mildly unflattering about him via social media, he'll be quick to cut you off at the knees, at least when it comes to Twitter. That receding hairline is further exposing awfully thin skin. There's a good chance this blog's Twitter account will be blocked by Lambert if he even thinks one critical thing has been written about him.

It will be interesting to see where Lambert is in 10 years. His schtick seems to play well, but radio is a fickle mistress. As soon as Clear Channel is done with him, he'll be tossed aside faster than Chad Hartman. Will there be another radio station ready to embrace him if Clear Channel decides to untether him? Only time will tell.

I'm at a loss to explain the aura of Lambert, but you can't hate a guy who lives a charmed life, even if you don't root for him.

As for Dubay, do you think he hates Lambert? Dubay's tenure at KFAN had a similar track as Lambert's. Dubay was Meatsauce before Lambert was Meatsauce. Dubay might not hate Lambert, but I'm sure he's bitter he threw away his career and opened a door for Lambert to walk through.

Emily Engberg: Is the kitten on the prowl?

It was brought to my attention today that the excitable little imp from Twin Cities Live might no longer be married.

For some reason our local chat fests like to have wacky reporters out combing the streets, showing us just how fascinating the Twin Cities is. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but whether it be Gary Lumpkin of days past or Emily Engberg of today’s knock off of Good Company, you want somebody who people think is amusing, despite the fact you’d find him or her annoying if he or she was a member of your extended family.

Engberg’s appeal baffles me. She’s not particularly funny, although she thinks she’s entertaining. She’s easy on the eyes, which always helps, but her presence won’t command a room. (That’s not necessarily negative.) She can speak fluently, but she doesn’t dazzle you with intelligent observations or shrewd commentary. But she does what people want her to do, evidently, so job well done, Emily. You’re the female Eric Perkins.

As the story goes, an anecdote she shared on Twin Cities Live left out any mention of her husband. This was notable for two reasons. One, in the past she has made it clear that she’s married to some sort of Conway Twitty wannabe. Two, she was talking about a home improvement issue, evidently, something in which the counsel of her husband might have been reasonable.

Online research that I was able to verify without too much trouble showed that a few years ago Engberg was pimping some sort of concert by her then-husband Dustin Lee via Engberg’s Facebook page. A click to Lee’s linked Facebook page says today he’s engaged to somebody else.

I don’t watch TCL very often. I like to see what kind of fluff they’re passing off as a human-interest topic, and how close they come to simply pimping goods and services of local businesses. (They come damn close. I keep waiting to see a disclaimer pop up denoting a segment is a paid advertisement. It’s only a matter of time with that show.)

Although I don’t watch the show very often, TCL and Engberg weren’t shy about pimping Lee’s music and his marriage to Engberg in the past. Lee performed on the show, and they didn’t hide the fact why he was singing his honky tonk tunes on the show.

I can’t speak to whether or not Engberg ever spoke of her divorce on the show. I’d bet not, but I don’t know that.

Divorce is a part of life. What was once a social stigma is now a common practice. More than half the marriages in this country end in divorce, so it’s really no big deal. I guess it is a big deal when a person’s spouse turns out to be a cheater or the nuptials end within months of the pledge of everlasting love. But it’s not shocking when a marriage ends. Some people practically embrace it, as if it’s a sign that both partners have grown as humans, and subsequently grown apart.

Our local “celebrities” get divorced. It’s a part of life. If you’re on a talk show, TV or radio, referencing your spouse is hard to avoid. And if you get married, you have to talk all about it. Just ask TCL newlywed Elizabeth Ries.

But why is it that our precious broadcasting talent isn’t so quick to announce the termination of their marriage? I know, nobody likes to admit they’ve failed. And divorce is a type of failure.

Good news, heterosexual men of the Twin Cities, the imp is not married. She’d look good on the arm of a lot of executives, so perhaps she rebounded as quickly as her cowpoke ex-husband. But if not, then perhaps you’ll get lucky and stumble upon her when she’s out hamming it up for the camera. If you can stomach her antics, perhaps you can marry a real Twin Cities celebrity!

Alix Kendall, a fascinating case study

How long have we known you, Alix Kendall?

Here’s what I remember about Alix, accurate or not: She started on the new Fox9 morning news/chatfest when it launched more than a decade ago. Eventually she added the couch chat hour to her morning news recaps. She started on a show called “Good Day (Good Grief) Minnesota,” a show that simply came to be known as the Fox9 Morning Disaster, or something like that. She once accidentally referred to the show, during its initial incarnation, as Good Morning America, and then gasped as she realized her gaffe. (Did I imagine this?)

At one point she got married, had a child and got divorced.

I remember her fiancée being trotted out onto the set prior to her marriage. I think the dude picked her up during this awkward moment in local broadcasting.

Her daughter made an on-screen cameo at last once. I remember she was sitting on the couch next to Jason Matheson, and she seemed annoyed to be there.

You learn a few things about local “celebrities” if they hang around long enough.

Among the nuggets: Alix lives somewhere in Minneapolis, I’m certain, based on anecdotes about her life. Perhaps she said so in so many words.

She’s over 50 years old. She doesn’t trumpet her age, but she doesn’t hide it. I think I gleaned this nugget via Facebook. I’m not connected to Alix, but she didn’t hide her age.

All it takes is a little online searching of her name and you’ll learn a few other nuggets about her. The most bizarre, bar none, is that there is/was a blog named after her. It’s a blog dedicated to news anchors and reporters wearing boots. The curator of these screen shots/pics of broadcast news professionals is amusing, and creepy.

Alix is not her real name. (I’m shocked!)

She is suing government agencies for more than $75,000.

She’s a local gal, I think.

So what does all this mean?

Alix does a good job doing what she does and avoids being a nauseating “celebrity.”

I don’t hold anchors in high regard. It’s a talent to anchor a broadcast, no doubt, and you have to be able to think on your feet. You can’t be an uninformed idiot, either, but anchors have it cushy in comparison to reporters. Anchors are typically compensated to be the face of a newscast or station, and therefore you rarely see them doing any of the legwork. That’s not to say they don’t, but you don’t see it. Typically anchors cut their teeth as reporters, but the anchor's chair is an overrated gig, and a good gig, if you can get it.

Alix isn’t flawless as an anchor, nobody will mistake her for Today Show talent, but she has been a solid presence for more than a decade.

Years ago the local affiliate added couch chat to its morning news, an hour dedicated to opinions and commentary by the on-air staff, because we all really want to know what Alix and the gang think about the news of the day and other water cooler topics. I have no idea if Alix volunteered for the gig or was told it was part of her job. It’s harmless, but the idea that our local talking heads from all the local affiliates are so precious and special that we should care what they think about the hot topics of the day is a bit nauseating. Unfortunately it’s the world we live in.

I may not care to know what Alix thinks about the news of the weird, but once again she handles the job without being annoying or pompous. God bless her for that.

I don’t envy women in broadcasting, now more than ever. There are enough weirdos out there that you can’t assume you’re safe from all of them when you anchor a morning newscast. You know that’s part of the deal when you choose the career path, and it has been for decades. Nowadays, however, you’re not only subject to scrutiny from anonymous blogs like this one, you’ll inevitably end up being critiqued like a piece of meat from the anonymous depths of the Internet. While it might be flattering to be heralded as an attractive woman when you wear knee-high boots during a morning newscast, it can’t be pleasant to know perverts are salivating over you, even in an industry where image is highly important, especially for women.

I think the thing that rubs me the wrong way regarding Alix is that she’s suing government agencies for a nice payday. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be compensated, but Alix and others in the media are ready to pocket cash for violations of their privacy by government officials with access to driver’s license data. I’m not convinced they deserve a fat settlement.

I won’t break down the current data privacy issue being debated here in Minnesota, but here’s what I can say in brief: Public officials shouldn’t be using the driver’s license registry to look up personal information about public figures. Compensating victims of that privacy violation shouldn’t be automatic, especially for those who choose careers in broadcasting. It’s creepy, sure, but being a public figure who trades on his/her public image shouldn’t be surprised when they become the subject of public fascination.

That doesn’t make it right for public officials to look up an anchor or reporter’s home address, but is it that traumatizing? Perhaps so if your data has been accessed for years, hundreds of times. But isn’t it  as traumatizing to know that somebody is fixating on you as an anchor when you wear boots to work? I can’t say which is more traumatizing, but I have a definite opinion.

So a boots blog isn’t an invasion of privacy. Fine. What does suing government agencies accomplish. I think it has been made clear through scrutiny of the practice, and settlements paid for such invasions, that driver’s license data is not a de facto Facebook for cops and other public officials. Is Alix’s lawsuit for $75,000+ (according to the Pioneer Press) aimed at punishing those who abused their access to driver’s license data? Or is it punishing the taxpayers that support those agencies?

How does $75,000+ alleviate the trauma caused by the privacy violations? How is it that $5,000 isn’t enough? The settlement isn’t about alleviating Alix’s trauma, it’s about punishing agencies responsible for the violations, punishing them to the point it hurts. I get that.

But I can’t get past the fact that there seems to be a bit of a cash grab at play. I understand the temptation. I could rationalize doing the same thing if I were in that situation.

It’s hard to make a judgment about Alix’s motivations without knowing the salient details. Perhaps cops were routinely driving by her home for years, hoping to get a glimpse of her washing her car in a bikini. But what if she had no idea she has been “checked out” repeatedly by public officials. Why does finding out you’ve been checked out 30 or 3,000 times suddenly freak you out when you didn’t know it was happening. It’s gross, for sure. Is it so traumatic that it takes $75,000 or more to alleviate the trauma?

I don’t mean to pick on Alix. She’s not the only news anchorette looking to cash in on this government windfall. But her case is recent, and prominent. It gives me reason to think twice about who these people are, why we hold them in such high esteem and what they give up in order to do their jobs.

Thanks Alix, you’ve remained true to the Minnesota roots I want to believe you have.

Jason Matheson must have a drug addiction

As Jeff Dubay's broadcasting career ended with a spectacular thud last month, another bastion of Twin Cities broadcasting perseverance made a splash too. Just not as big of a splash. And that's the way it should be.

Jason Matheson, a local entertainment guru, is returning to local television at Ch. 4, where Don Shelby once famously proclaimed in a commercial, "We all really like each other," or something close to that.

I've seen Matheson now and again over the years, and as best I know, he worked in some capacity, perhaps as an intern, for Ch. 4 prior to his long tenure at Ch. 9, our local Fox affiliate.

Years ago he was known as Buzz Boy, a doughy, young looking, enthusiastic entertainment reporter. Over the years he grew up to be a fixture for Fox9. He did his "Buzz Boy" weekly entertainment show, participated in the cheesy coffee talk hour the station created in lieu of another nationally fed male-female gab fest to follow the hard hitting news of the 8 a.m. hour and anchored a little news in the wee hours of the morning before the stars of the morning news took over the anchor desk.

And somewhere along the way he added chick talk radio co-hosting to his resume. After a long morning in Eden Prairie he drove to the Hubbard compound in St. Paul for girl talk. Sorry Jason, I haven't listened to more than 15 minutes of your radio career, so for all I know you could have been talking politics all day.

The dude wasn't building houses, but he was putting in long hours five days a week. As we're seeing here in the Twin Cities, radio, TV and newspaper gurus are double dipping whenever they can. Again, a topic for another night.

Matheson left Fox9 a little over a year ago, unable to get paid what he so richly deserved for wearing multiple hats on a daily basis. That coincided with his move to morning drive radio.

For a year he has sat on the television sidelines, presumably because of a non-compete clause in that fat contract from Fox9, and talked the talk on the FM dial. A little over a year later and we get the big news that Matheson is taking his talents to downtown Minneapolis.

I was mildly surprised.

Our little afternoon male-female gab fest on the Hubbard TV station was in need of a new male anchor last spring. The era of the housewife may be a novelty of the past, but the show is geared toward a female audience, now more than ever. When "Twin Cities Live" lost its testosterone in John Hanson around the same time as Matheson was readying to leave Fox9, Twin Cities Live gave up any pretense that the show was for a mixed audience. Yes, men enjoy "food, fashion and fun," or however they bill it, but it's clearly a show geared toward women, and perhaps gay men.

Because of that non-compete, I suppose, Matheson was unable to take the male reigns of TCL last spring. So KSTP poached one of its news guys to fill that void. That guy, who is so forgettable I've practically forgotten his name, conveniently left the show less than a year later to take a seat at the morning news desk. It was as if Chris Egert (see, I remember,) was filling the seat on a temporary basis until Matheson could legally fill it. And given that Matheson was already drawing his paycheck from the Hubbard empire doing morning drive on chick talk radio, it seemed like an almost perfect marriage. Even gossip maven Cheryl Johnson thought so when Matheson was preparing to leave Fox9.

And then Matheson sold his soul to his original Twin Cities mistress, Ch. 4.

I was mildly surprised, but not completely. Had he taken the male throne of TCL, it would have meant starting work before sunrise and sticking around until 4 p.m. daily. For the right money, I'm sure he'd have said yes. But he was pretty much stuck in morning drive on the radio, as TCL's cheerleader, Elizabeth Ries, is already double dipping at Hubbard, filling the morning slot after Matheson.

So Matheson is off to Ch. 4 and TCL is still looking for a man that loves food, fashion and fun.

The gossip maven claimed that multiple stations were clamoring for Matheson's talents. I'm not sure why he's such a hot commodity, but clearly he is.

There's value in familiarity, so Matheson has that going for him. And while his love of entertainment and coffee talk are not my cup of tea, there's a need for that in local television. Our country has never been more obsessed with celebrities and the millions of non-celebrities that are vying for 15 minutes, and if you want to draw viewers to your station's local news programming, you'd better be able to shill for the network's entertainment offerings. Death, taxes, gun control, those are news topics to some. For others, you'd better talk about American Idol, a Kardashian sister or Lady Gaga's current concert tour.

And there's Matheson to cash in on it.

Who knows, perhaps they'll actually have him do news reports on non-celebrity topics, but I'm guessing that a station that employs Heather Brown to go out and ask people for a "good question" on a nightly basis isn't a station that is hiring Matheson for his coverage of Hennepin County District Court proceedings.

We will soon find out.

I'm not a fan of Matheson. I'm not that interested in pop culture topics, or the opinions of TV reporters, anchors and/or meteorologists when it comes to current events and pop culture.

Despite that, I find it hard to dislike the guy. Like his good friend Jeff Dubay, Matheson has worked hard to build a career in broadcasting covering topics that he seems to love. Unlike Dubay, Matheson hasn't derailed his career or lashed out against the online negativity that lurks in dark, and no-so-dark, corners of the Internet, as far as I know.

I'm not his target audience, but obviously I've seen his stuff more than a few times on Fox9. He went from a doughy, slightly awkward entertainment reporter to a polished broadcasting professional. I may not enjoy his work, but I admire the hell out of his work ethic and professionalism.

And about that professionalism. I think if there's anything I can criticize him for, he has been professional to a fault.

Did I mention Matheson is gay? I don't know where I first heard mention of it, but it probably wasn't by Matheson. Unlike some local "celebrities," (talk show hosts, anchors and reporters are not celebrities,) Matheson doesn't need to appear on the cover of our local gay periodical three times a year, as far as I know. I don't think he hides the fact that he is gay, but just like his non-gay counterparts who don't need to vomit tidbits about their personal life, Matheson avoids it too, as best as I can tell.

Years ago a KSTP reporter and fill-in anchor use to drop harmless little references to the fact he was Jewish. I don't care what religion an anchor or reporter is. Likewise, I really don't care if a reporter or meteorologist is gay. Yet it use to bug me that when the coffee talk hour would feature stories about gay issues, Matheson seemed to be going out of his way not to reference his life or his experiences during the dialogue. Yes, I eventually caught him making a reference to his own life, but it seemed to take a long time.

On the one hand, I couldn't care less what religion or sexual orientation a reporter or meteorologist is. On the other hand, if you're going to engage in on-air coffee talk, and share opinions about the topics of the day (because it's important to know what Alix Kendall thinks about current events,) then doesn't it look curious when you don't share personal experiences about news topics that you probably can relate to during your life?

I can argue that he was too professional while sitting on the Fox9 couch, but there's no rule that says he has to cut open a vein when giving an opinion about current events or pop culture nonsense.

And that's the only thing I can find to criticize him for.

I've never met the man, I never will. I don't listen to him on the radio, and I'm not going to start. I likely won't be fascinated by the topics he covers for Ch. 4, but I'll get a chance to see his work occasionally, and I'll probably watch it.

He's good at what he does. Very good. Plenty of public figures on radio and TV in the Twin Cities rub me the wrong way. But Matheson isn't one of them. There's nothing to dislike about him.

So why must he have a drug addiction? He must be hooked on some sort of stimulant, because there's no way the guy can log that many hours week after week simply on the strength of a good night's sleep. The man might be a machine.

What would Jeff Dubay think?

I don't know Jeff Dubay, I've never met Jeff Dubay and I don't think I know anyone who knows Jeff Dubay.

But I know more than a few things about Jeff Dubay, because he chose a profession that makes him a public figure. (He is not a celebrity, but the word often is used to describe folks who appear on air at a local radio or television station.)

So, what does Jeff Dubay think about a blog that is named after him? I can only guess. Ultimately I don't care, but I couldn't help but wonder.

Thanks to Dubay's one-year tenure at 1500ESPN he had a chance to pimp his morning radio gab fest by talking about the latest sports headlines for a few minutes on the Hubbard-owned KSTC45 morning newscast.

The man chose a career that depends in part on people like you and me to love or hate him. Ultimately he needs us to listen to him, regardless of how we feel about him. And even if thousands of people listened to 1500ESPN strictly because of him, it wasn't enough to keep him employed. We don't know if his dismissal was purely a financial decision or if there was another reason, significant or insignificant, and we never will.

As chronicled previously, Dubay craves the spotlight and all the perks of a pretty cushy job: talking about sports on the radio. Who can blame him? I'd take that gig.

Also detailed previously: Dubay has a short fuse and can be arrogant at times. (Yes, he can be very self-deprecating, but don't kid yourself, there's more than a tinge of arrogance.)

Put the two together and you have the title of a blog featuring copious quantities of Twin Cities commentary and analysis, with a bit of a focus upon those who consider themselves the créme de la créme of the local media.

On the one hand, naming a blog after a Twin Cities broadcaster is an affirmation of his "celebrity" status. Dubay should be pleased with such an honor. It validates his opinion of himself. On the other hand, naimg a blog after one of his biggest personality flaws is something nobody wants to shine a spotlight on. I wouldn't want the warts on my other hand to be memorialized in the title of a blog, so why should Dubay? 

I'm not a celebrity. I don't work in television or radio. I have never made a dime talking about sports on the radio or appeared on the company-owned morning newscast to talk about sports. It doesn't matter who I am. I'm not trying to make a dime off my name or persona.

Dubay's career, however, is based upon his name and persona. Despite that, there is no doubt that Dubay would not be flattered by a blog named in his honor. His thin skin has been exposed numerous times in his post-KFAN career.

And as honest as Dubay wants to pretend he was when it came to owning up to his mistakes as he attempted to resurrect his broadcasting career, there is no doubt he would hate me for providing my  analysis and criticism of his very public career.

There's no doubt about it: Jeff Dubay hates me. 

Jeff Dubay: The 11th most fascinating person in the Twin Cities

There have to be at least 10 people more fascinating than Jeff Dubay here in the Twin Cities, right?

Although when it comes to City Pages, once a relevant weekly news source, Dubay is hanging in there right around No. 10.

City Pages produces plenty of Facebook and internet traffic by regurgitating news stories from other sources or poaching online postings and adding a dose of color and commentary to its presentation. Train wrecks like Dubay are ripe for the picking, and City Pages loves it whenever Dubay turns the spotlight on himself, as he has a couple of times via Facebook since his broadcasting career ended.

Besides City Pages, it appears the primary source of Dubay news right now is the Pioneer Press. I'm not sure why the stepchild of daily newspapers here in the Twin Cities deems Dubay's online jousts with his former colleagues to be worthy of actual news treatment, but que sera sera. I guess that Bob Sansevere's dissecting of Dubay's career via his Pioneer Press blog made it newsworthy.

A post mortum on Dubay's podcast history by the Pioneer Press and a random collection of tidbits by City Pages provided plenty of insight into Dubay's world. Throw in a few other random sources and I'm still not sure what to believe. Here are tidbits I gleaned in the past 12 hours. None of this is groundbreaking material.

• Everybody is lying. Dubay will claim comments about him are lies. Tom Barnard's nephew will refute any claim Dubay makes. Nobody has said one truthful thing since Dubay's podcast went silent.

• Dubay's co-host, Di Murphy, appears to have been plucked from the online world because she's a woman who is really, really, really into sports. She has blogged on sports in the past, and laments the lack of a female host in the local sports radio market. It's hard to disagree with some of her observations about the local scene. Whether she was cut out for broadcasting in any form is hard to say, as I have never heard her work. She was awfully difficult to work with, according to Dubay.

• Murphy and Barnard's nephew seem to be holding back in revealing something crucial about the sequence of events that brought us to today, and seem to suggest that perhaps it is necessary the Dubay-obsessed public see and/or hear what it is.

• The domain that hosted Dubay's podcast, jeffdubay.com, now redirects to Barnard's podcast site. Although Dubay stripped himself of a Twitter and Facebook presence in the aftermath of his tirade against Team Barnard, he has since restored his Facebook presence.

• Dubay ain't wealthy. This doesn't come as a surprise. It's hard to know how much anyone in broadcasting makes, but there are a few things that we know. It doesn't pay all that well for most folks, despite the public profile it provides. More on this another day, a lot more. For now, we have claims by Barnard's nephew that Dubay has no cash of his own and the startup costs for the podcast were fronted by the Barnard machine.

While Dubay once had a Clear Channel salary, allegedly owned a boat on Lake Minnetonka and may have had some sort of "cabin" north of the the metro – as well as a younger wife who fancied herself a cheerleading coach – his years of not working between radio gigs, (as far as we know,) combined with his time in rehab programs and/or jail settings and his legal bills certainly can't leave him with a lot of personal wealth, unless he was independently wealthy to begin with.

Allegedly Dubay took the bus to work at 1500ESPN each day because his driving privileges are suspended. If so, that's saves him hundreds of dollars per month, but not enough that he'd have built a nest egg to live off of since being dismissed by the Hubbards.

Nonetheless, it would seem unlikely that it's in Dubay's best interest to bite any hand that feeds him, no matter how tiny the morsel.

• Dubay would fly off the handle in his business dealings with those he worked with during his podcast career. Whether he did or didn't, we don't know, of course, but given his short temper and seething anger whenever he read something he didn't like on Twitter, the idea that he was difficult to deal with is not far fetched. Armchair psychologists seem to think Dubay has some sort of mental condition that is not being fueled by chemical stimulants.

So there you have it, the world of Dubay in the final days of March 2014. How will it all end? Will it end? Will Dubay finally just fade away, leaving his fans to wonder, "Whatever happened to that guy?"

Jeff Dubay: The aftermath

Lots of odd nuggets and tidbits floating around the Internet since Jeff Dubay retired from sports broadcasting less than two weeks ago.

Our precious Star Tribune gossip columnist, Cheryl Johnson, tried to dissect Dubay's podcasting career in her weekly fluff. Dubay had nothing to contribute to Cheryl's ego-driven gossip column, but those speaking on behalf of broadcasting behemoth Tom Barnard -- who Cheryl has never shied away from ripping -- did their lord and master proud.

One of the more interesting things to come out of Dubay's eulogies is a comment by his former podcast co-host. As a dabbler in sports radio, I know a lot of the names and voices that grace the Twin Cities airwaves, but Dubay's co-host, Di Murphy, is not somebody I'm familiar with. (More on her another day.) Having never listened to the 11 or 12 podcasts she was a part of, I have no idea what she brought to the table, or even why she was at the table. But it appears that she was fired prior to the plug being pulled on Dubay's podcast. Although she didn't have much to say about the situation once she was relegated to a footnote in sports podcasting history, she unearthed this recent nugget via Twitter: "It really bothers me that so many rubes paint Jeff Dubay as a victim. Do the math."

That really doesn't tell us anything, yet it says a lot. Fun stuff.

As for Dubay's retirement, it was noted in Cheryl's gossip column by Barnard's nephew, if I recall correctly, that there's no reason Dubay can't still be producing a podcast. He was an independent contractor. Although he wouldn't have had access to Barnard's podcast network resources, he could have continued, or could resurrect, his attempt at podcasting, should he desire. The odds of turning such a podcast into a financially viable production would be that much harder without Barnard's resources, but the option remains open.

Media darling and occasional attorney Ron Rosenbaum, who occasionally puts his law degree to work on behalf of Barnard, was quite complimentary of Dubay in Cheryl's gossip column. Rosenbaum suggests that multiple stations have had interest in having Dubay on their airwaves. I have no idea if that's right or wrong, but I'm skeptical that there ever was widespread interest in Dubay's services. And I remain doubtful Dubay will resurface in any meaningful way in the Twin Cities.

But I'm still expecting he will prove me wrong.

Jeff Dubay: Appetite for self destruction?

Jeff Dubay's improbable return to the Twin Cities airwaves via 1500ESPN ended unceremoniously earlier this year when the station cut him, seemingly as part of a series of salary dumps the Hubbard-owned TV and radio stations made.

Dubay was gracious in being kicked to the curb, thanking the Hubbard empire for the opportunity and looking optimistically toward his future.

What I'll never understand is the non-complete clause in a contract. I get why radio and television stations have them, but what I don't understand is why the clauses seem to apply when a station kicks an employee to the curb, without cause. If you're going to cut a guy and stop paying him simply because you can't afford or don't want to continue paying his salary, why is he prohibited from being hired immediately by another station in the market?

It was made clear in stories about Dubay's dismissal that his non-compete clause was waived.

It didn't take long for Dubay to turn up on sports radio, this time at the lackluster CBS Sports Radio affiliate 105 The Ticket. Dubay was invited to contribute to the award winning afternoon duo of Mike Morris and Bob Sansevere.

In the incestuous world of radio, The Ticket is a sister station of 92KQRS. Longtime KQRS morning drive god Tom Barnard happens to be in the process of building his own little online radio empire. They like to call it podcasting, but the reality is that Barnard is building a talk radio outlet that isn't broadcast the way God intended it to be, over the airwaves. Barnard has spent more than a year ramping up his side project into what will probably become his full-time gig in the next few years. To do that, you need a roster of talent. Dubay was ripe for the picking.

Dubay's podcast debuted March 3. It was just one hour and was broadcast live at 8 p.m. Twin Cities time. The idea must have been that the downloading and podcasting of the hour would be a big draw rather than listening to the show live over the Internet. Why would people who follow and watch sports want to list to sports talk during prime time, when the majority of sporting events are played?

As the world learned this week, Dubay's podcast was dropped by Barnard's network during its third week. Dubay fired off a tirade against Barnard's nephew, a honcho for Barnard, and hours later began excising his social media footprint. Of course Dubay's online sins live on in perpetuity, but the hot-headed Dubay no longer has a Twitter account in his name to rip those who want to take cheap shots at him.

Much of what we know as of this week came to light thanks to a blog on the St. Paul Pioneer Press website, a blog written by Sansevere. Sansevere continues to write opinion pieces for the fledgling St. Paul paper in addition to his periodic radio appearances as Barnard's sidekick in the morning and on the afternoon gab fest with Morris. Sansevere deemed it necessary to share tidbits of Dubay's online meltdown and handicap Dubay's future in broadcasting. When it comes to Sansevere's handicapping, I'd have a hard time arguing against his logic.

Dubay's defenders seem to think their "common man" has been railroaded again, and seem to think Barnard is some sort of godfather who put the hit out on Dubay because Dubay crossed Barnard's nephew. The theory also suggests Sansevere's ripping of Dubay was an order by Barnard to strike first rather than employ damage control after the fact.

Others seems to think that Dubay's tirade is an indication that he has taken a liking to the crack cocaine he found so enticing several years ago.

We're unlikely to know what really went down between Dubay and Barnard mafia.

What we do know is that unlike the 1500ESPN dismissal, Dubay failed to handle the bizarre end to his short-lived podcast career under Barnard's umbrella with the same grace.

I have no idea how you make money doing a one-hour podcast, but the idea behind Barnard's podcast network is to make money, presumably by selling commercials. There couldn't have been much money to be made during the first week of Dubay's podcast, but presumably the idea was to cultivate an audience and hope the dollars followed. That would take months, if not years. There's no way you can make a value judgment on a podcast in less than three weeks.

Dubay claims he was the victim of Barnard's nephew and the nephews habitual imbibing. Barnard's camp really hasn't said much to justify pulling the plug so quickly.

Let's pretend Dubay is back smoking the crack pipe. If so, he's committing career suicide. But at this point I doubt that. His tirade was simply Dubay being Dubay. He was wronged by an organization that quickly reversed its belief in Dubay's draw.

Better yet, let's pretend Dubay was the victim of Barnard's alcoholic nephew. Either way, Dubay's anger management issues resulted in an online tirade against those who wronged him. Justified or not, Dubay just affirmed to the broadcasting industry that he's a loose cannon who can't control his temper.

Despite the fact that his supporters, probably fewer than I imagine, long for him to grace the Twin Cities airwaves, KFAN isn't going to hire him back in any meaningful way. There's no room on the payroll, and none of the on-air personalities are going to give up the Clear Channel paycheck any time soon.

1500ESPN isn't going to bring him back, either. There's a possibility, I suppose, that The Ticket would look for a sports radio retread, a la Morris, to drive more local content, but that seems like a remote possibility.

As noted previously, whatever be Sansevere's motivation for digging Dubay's broadcasting grave, he hit the nail on the head: Dubay's hatred of you, me and anyone else that doesn't kiss his ass is likely to spell the end of the Jeff Dubay rebirth.

And yet I won't count the guy out.

Why does Jeff Dubay hate you?

Given the developments of this past week, this blog is far overdue to pay homage to the talent that is Jeff Dubay.

There's a lot to admire about Dubay. He has parlayed a love of sports into a reasonably successful career in radio broadcasting. I have yet to hear anyone praise him for his dulcet tones on the radio. That is the claim to fame of his longtime KFAN partner, Paul Allen. Dubay was the sidekick in that scenario. He may have been equally billed as a co-host of the show, but there was no Dubay without P.A.

Dubay proved that following sports passionately and dedicating yourself to your career choice will pay dividends. Nobody refers to Dubay as a marquee talent, and nobody would ever have mistaken him for it on KFAN. Allen won the play-by-play job for the Minnesota Vikings radio network, Dubay chewed the fat with Vikings rubes on the air following the games. Allen calls horse races at Canterbury Park to this day. Dubay would occasionally be tapped for an on-air promotion of Body Solutions during the KFAN broadcast day.

Dubay's fall from grace was well chronicled in the local media. I won't rehash it. All I'll say is that many have fallen further, and harder, than Dubay, but given Dubay's profile, it got more attention than those who crashed and burned. That's the price you pay when you seek out a public profile. Right or wrong, that's how it works.

Dubay is synonymous with crack cocaine, but I'd argue that wasn't his only addiction. I'm relatively certain Dubay was addicted to the cult of celebrity. Dubay's celebrity pales in comparison to that of the Kardashians, but on a local level he is a public figure who enjoyed the benefits of being a public figure in an entertainment medium, and the trappings of it were his first addiction. Crack cocaine was a bonus that came along later. Both addictions were capable of derailing his career, but unfortunately for Dubay, it was the latter addiction that did it, and in the process that addiction also made him a criminal drug user.

Despite his improbable rise to KFAN co-host and fall from grace, Dubay accomplished another miracle: a second chapter in his broadcast career. Dubay may have name recognition, but again, he wasn't an elite talent. There are plenty of young Dubay wannabes in the Twin Cities. But instead of cultivating one of those, 1500ESPN allowed the phoenix that is Jeff Dubay to rise from the ashes.

Clearly the guy is more of a talent than I realize. Good thing I'm not pursuing a career in talent scouting.

I'll share thoughts about Dubay's short-lived podcasting career another night. For now I want to conclude by theorizing why Jeff Dubay hates you.

He doesn't hate you, necessarily, but he hates people who don't want to kiss his ass. He proved this via Twitter.

Dubay was active on Twitter during his year at 1500ESPN. When people didn't like what he said, or disagreed with him, they'd take cheap shots at Dubay about his previous crack addiction. Dubay didn't like that, and rightfully so. It was childish and mean-spirited at best.

But Dubay's anger seems to be deeper seeded. Sure, he'd hate you if you made a crack comment in regard to him, but he seemed to be angered by anyone who challenged him or dismissed his point of view. I've seen it firsthand.

One of his most famous moments was when he was talking on-air with a former KSTP-TV weatherman about global warming. Dubay has decided the concept is fraudulent and made that clear. I'd love to know what kind of reading he's done on the topic. Maybe the sports geek is also a science geek who spent his years of recovery reading up on the topic. I'd be surprised, but you never know.

Those who scoffed at his simple dismissive comments via Twitter drew his ire. Mocked for his past crack addiction, Dubay claimed he was quitting Twitter. That didn't last long. And when he returned,  Mr. Thin Skin was once again quick to snap at comments he perceived as insulting. The dude has anger management issues, and he demonstrated them on Twitter.

For reasons I'm uncertain of, but will touch on soon enough, Pioneer Press sports columnist Bob Sansevere blogged about the quick demise of Dubay's podcast. He nailed it in his closing graphs: "Unfortunately, Dubay appears to have a tendency to be quick-tempered and knee-jerk."

Plenty of people like Dubay. When he was dismissed by 1500ESPN – purely as a cost-cutting move by all indication – several people were quick to kiss his ass, telling him via Twitter how much they would miss him and how they had no reason to listen to 1500 any more. Additional praise was showered upon Dubay at the announcement that he was going to host a podcast.

If you kiss up to Dubay, he'll tell you how much he appreciates you. If you mock his crack addiction, he'll be quick to dismiss you, and rightfully so. And if you dare to question or criticize him, he'll hate you.

Welcome to the club, Dennis "Rusty" Gatenby

Before I finally get around to toasting the great Jeff Dubay, the namesake of this temperamental blog, I have to raise a glass and propose a toast to a true bastion of media excellence: Dennis "Rusty" Gatenby.

I am in awe of Dennis. I don't know a lot about him, but I know a bit:

He was an off-camera lackey for the 1980s television choo-choo known as Good Company. From what I read recently, he weaseled his way on camera occasionally. I remember seeing the husband-and-wife team of Steve and Sharon on weekday afternoons after school. I'm not sure why I ever dialed up their show, but I know I saw it occasionally, and I vaguely recall seeing Dennis grace the airwaves now and then.

In the mid-1990s Good Company was scuttled, and Dennis, being some sort of Hubbard bastard child, retained a paycheck. He became the go-to guy for any fluff piece that had nothing to do with news. He did a lot of entertainment interviews, (crucial to Twin Cities news,) and inherited the job of breaking down the traffic maps every weekday morning. He had that gig for many, many years. Beats working for a living, I suppose.

I'm speculating a bit, but I'm reasonably confident Dennis was married, and that his wife was an architect working in Shorewood, a sleepy little suburb with some valuable real estate.

That nugget would seem to be more than a little coincidental as word broke – thanks to the Star Tribune's pompous "celebrity gossip" maven – that Dennis was dismissed from the Hubbard empire after three decades because he was busted for DWI in Excelsior, which he claimed is close to his home in Minnetonka. (Excelsior and Shorewood's borders are often blurred, particularly by those who live there.)

The irony is that Dennis lost his job as a traffic reporter because he drove drunk. Ouch.

The Hubbards have been cutting salaries recently, and there's no guarantee they'll replace those salaries with fresh meat. (How many stations in the country have five on-air meteorologists in the fold? Ch. 5 did for a time.) As has been proven for years at various local stations, you can hire barely competent broadcasters to do traffic reports, and you can get 'em cheap. Why pay Dennis a real salary for that crap when you can find a desperate to be on TV babe to stumble through a traffic report for peanuts? Dennis was bloat, and his drunken driving was the perfect excuse for Hubbard to finally stop paying him.

That annoying gossip maven noted in her writing that people either love or hate Dennis, but he's the type of guy that gets people to watch, either way. Perhaps so, but I never found him to be worth my time, although I would sample his broadcasting skills on occasion. And every time I'd wonder how the hell he has a job. Those days are finally over. I won't miss him.

Funny tidbit: I noted that I am reasonably confident Dennis was married. If I'm right, he has traded his wife in for a younger model. A nugget from the arrogant gossip maven, circa 2008, noted that Dennis was at an event with a rather young woman by his side. The suggestion wasn't that Dennis was escorting a daughter at the event. This was Dennis's date, evidently. If that be correct, as stated by the maven, I wouldn't be shocked at all. You can be an average looking middle-aged dude with a silly job, but as long as you're recognized as being somebody and catered to like you're important, there will be a babe half your age waiting to act as your arm candy when it's time to trade the old wife in. What a country!