The sad life of Jeff Dubay

I get Google alerts when Jeff Dubay makes the news. It's weird, I know, but I'm always curious to know why his name resurfaces. 

I was aware he had been in legal trouble in North Dakota, and I learned in late January that Dubay was sentenced to 20 years in prison. But it appears that if he minds his business while in the slammer, he will serve five years of that sentence. 

Here's what the Grand Forks newspaper had to say: 

A Grand Forks man was ordered Tuesday, Jan. 20, to serve five years for Class A felony possession of at least 50 grams of methamphetamine with intent to deliver.

Jeffrey John Dubay, 58, was approached by local law enforcement after exiting the Amtrak train on May 17, according to a declaration of probable cause summary filed in the case. Law enforcement had obtained a search warrant for Dubay and his luggage while he traveled from Minneapolis to Grand Forks.

Inside the backpack, law enforcement located approximately 178 grams, or 6.28 ounces, of methamphetamine, including the weight of the baggie, the summary said.

The story goes on to note he identified a woman as the source of the meth he was carrying. Her legal fate was still pending as of late January.

A day before he was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, he was blowing out 58 candles on his birthday cake. 

I was stunned by the timeline when I started reading his Wikipedia page and other info about him. He was fired by KFAN radio in 2008, so he'd have been 40 years old at that time. The guy was prominent and reasonably successful in Minneapolis-St. Paul radio for about a decade at that point. He wasn't getting rich quick, but he wasn't living a meager life, that much I recall. He was doing well enough to afford a boat, cruise Lake Minnetonka occasionally and may have had a lake cabin of some kind during his better days. He was married at one point, as well. He was living a dream. 

The story goes that his marriage crumbled, and that his brother not only was responsible, but ended up with his ex-wife, and I think Dubay said in an interview that they had a child together. He didn't blame the infidelity for his drug addiction, but I could see how that would be a bitter pill to swallow.

In the nearly 18 years since he was fired by KFAN, he has had recurring run-ins with the law for his drug offenses. I think there are more incidents than have made the news. In 2018 he was convinced in an assault case that stemmed from a 2017 incident in Cottage Grove. 

A recap of the case suggested that Dubay may have been having sex with a couple of women, and it was not Three's Company at the Cottage Grove home where the assault allegedly occurred in 2017. The woman he appeared to have assaulted had two prosthetic legs and had trouble fleeing the scene when Dubay allegedly turned violent. 

Dubay thinks he was the victim of a trumped up bunko charge, according to a Pioneer Press story.  

Dubay told the Pioneer Press in December that he disputed the victim’s account and that he planned to plead not guilty when he showed up in court, but was “never given that chance.”

“I was told that if I pleaded not guilty, then my charge would be changed to first-degree assault, and I’d have to go to a jury trial with a potential for a seven- to eight-year prison term,” Dubay said. “I was not willing to risk seven to eight years of my life and put it in the unpredictable hands of a jury. Anything could happen then.”

He got a mild sentence in that case, two years after his second drug conviction. 

I know there were a few arrests between 2018 and his Grand Forks arrest. I didn't easily find documentation, but I've seen it before. 

One story you can find is the weird tale of him being stopped by Minnesota State Patrol in March 2024 and ultimately pleading guilty to a simple case of driving while on drugs. 

The guilty plea comes after Dubay told the Star Tribune that the allegations against him are "full of misinformation and horrible assumptions."

The Bring Me The News summary of the arrest and guilty plea, for which he served 10 days of a 90-day sentence, also included this popular nugget from stories of the initial arrest. 

Dubay was found inside the Jeep "naked by covered by a blanket." He was also covered in vegetable oil.

I never heard the explanation for the vegetable oil.

If you google Dubay a bit further, you find, -- on reddit of all places -- somebody citing detailed info claiming Dubay rear-ended a Metro Transit bus in 2024. He had no license and his vehicle's registration was expired. (Shocking.)

A year later Metro Transit was trying to collect $13,000 for the damage to the bus, but was having a hard time reaching Dubay. Then came the Amtrak train incident and somehow Dubay was able to respond in court from jail in North Dakota, saying he had no money/assets to pay for the damage to the bus. 

I've never seen that story anywhere other than on reddit, but it sounds like a Dubay misadventure. 

We don't know when Dubay started taking drugs to cope with life as a successful sports talk radio co-host whose personal life wasn't so great, allegedly. 

Some people have a hard time controlling their urges. Some harm only themselves. Some harm others. Some seek help and turn their life around. Some repeat the same mistakes. 

We all know folks who fit into each of those categories. Dubay fits most of those categories, and all of the wrong ones.

Why did things go south for Dubay? Why has he failed to clean up his act and kick the habit? I think he has claimed in the past to be sober, but it obviously didn't last. And he posted on his social media account that he's sober now as he is about to begin his five-year staycation in a grey bar hotel.

Years ago I predicted it was going to end badly for Dubay. He's still alive, and now he's going to give up five years of his life. And if he gets out after five years, what kind of a future does a 63-year-old felon have after more than two decades of destroying his life? 

His social media post had a lot of comments offering words of encouragement. People root for him. I don't know why. 

Perhaps there's something to like about him, but he seems to blame the system for at least some of his past situations. 

From what I saw on his social media history, he's not simply a political conservative. He's a right wing jackass. I get some people want to believe one party is always on the right side of history, but Dubay is an asshole about it. And isn't shy about being an asshole. 

Yet people root for him. 

I named this blog after Dubay because he's a pompous jerk. All these years later, and after all his legal troubles, he still is. 

If he can do something meaningful and worthwhile with his life going forward, I'll applaud him. Isn't that what we want for everyone? 

I created this blog nearly 12 years ago. I haven't used it in a few years, by design. Yet here we are, nearly 12 years later, and I'm still writing about Dubay. He beat the odds thus far, at least in my opinion. I never game a timeline, but I figured it would all end badly for him. And maybe it will. 

I'm not rooting for him. But he has survived this long. Perhaps he'll get his life on track before he reaches the final station in his mortal journey. 

I do wish that for him. 

Alix Kendall, Rena Sarigianopoulos and Elizabeth Ries walk into a bar

I want to write about too many things, and I don't want to write 10 blog posts in the next year, so here are thoughts on a variety of topics, rolled into one package.

YOUR LIFE IS NOT THAT FASCINATING

Why is it that TV stations insist on treating their employees like they're part of our family? I'm sure the anchors and reporters are complicit in this.

We all know Rena Sarigianopoulos got married and had a child during the past few years. It's hard to hide the pregnancy when a woman continues to work on camera, but honestly, did KARE-TV need to share pictures of Rena's wedding and pregnancy announcement on its social media channels?

It's one thing to note that an on-air "talent" has had a child. If you watch Rena on that news-fluff program she participates in you noticed the obvious, and were probably reminded of it plenty of times. (I don't watch, so I don't know.) When Rena disappears for weeks, it's understandable that the station will show a picture of the mother and child and note a baby was born.

But TV stations take it to another level these days thanks to social media. I'm not sure which station in the Twin Cities is most guilty, but damn, KARE-TV sure likes to exploit the personal lives of their talent. I have to assume the talent agrees to play along. It's sad, and it is trumped by the fact that people actually care. They will respond to those Facebook posts to congratulate Rena or whomever it is for their incredible accomplishment. Harmless, sure, but a sad indictment of both the stations pumping out the local news and the people watching it.

BRING ME A BARF BAG

I'm not a fan of that lame attempt at news chat that Rena and her pal are doling out at 6:30 p.m., although Rena doesn't seem that interested any more. I don't watch the show, but if I have the TV on at 6:30, I try to see who is hosting on any particular night, and Rena is absent more often than not, it seems.

Perhaps the show is better than it was a couple of years ago when I first watched it, but honestly, these people are not smart.

Did I ever mention Rena once lectured me on Twitter? I made a silly comment about the show, but instead of ignoring it, Rena lectured me for my negativity. Now keep in mind that I had watched the show three times in its opening few months. I was watching on one 2016 night and tweeted that I was going to change the channel because the windbags on #BTN11 were going to praise Chris Kluwe, who should need no introduction to you because he's a media whore. I never said I wouldn't turn the channel back in five minutes to watch the final segment of the show.

So Rena, in response to a snarky comment at the end of the show, "busted" me. And then she lectured me, and tried to flatter her own ego at the same time. How superficial. And so, so wrong. At this point I hadn't tweeted all that much about her show, but she really put me in my place!

I was a social bully for daring to criticize a crappy show and refusing to watch two women babble about Chris Kluwe? OK, honey.

She didn't block me, like she should have if she is so delusional as to think I tweet hate daily.

Ignore those who criticize your crappy show if your skin is so thin. But pretending I'm some social bully who is constantly tweeting about how awful the show is shows how petty she is. Some might suggest it's an indicator of intelligence, or lack thereof.

Rena's not the only person who lives in a fantasy world of self-importance. The show has a producer named Nikki Muehlhausen who once lectured me on Twitter. She's at least smart enough to have deleted her tweets about a day after she did so. But basically darling Nikki told me that I'm allowed to praise her lame show and offer a suggestion, but I'm not allowed to call a spade a spade. I was wrong for calling it like I see it. I can kiss #BTN11 ass, but I can't call out bad TV when I see it. I didn't screen capture it, so I can't share the sentiment exactly as it was expressed, but yes, she was that ridiculous.

There's a dufus named Chad Nelson who points a camera at stuff now and again for Ch. 11. He saw some of my tweets, particularly those simple, dopey ones I sent for a while, noting I wasn't watching #BTN11 daily, despite what Rena thinks. His life is no better than mine, evidently, as he tried to needle me a few times in response. I love dopes who like to fight fire with fire. I'm sure he thinks he's above that.

In its earliest days they had some stiff named Nick Petersen who was their social media genius. They'd turn to him to share with the viewers what they were talking about on social media while watching the show. The guy wasn't smooth. I didn't interact with him much, but I did note his segment was painful to watch. A couple of months later I tweeted something (probably snarky) and made my standard comment about how I hate every segment, every day. He didn't reply. He blocked me, and I'm guessing he did so simply because he wasn't interested in seeing my comments in his social media scouring for #BTN11.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how it's done. Don't get high and mighty like Rena and Nikki, don't be a fool like Chad. Just ignore and move on. I'll have a lot more respect for you, even if you're not great on camera. (I flip to the show for a moment every once in a great while, and I haven't seen that guy on camera for a long, long time. I'm guessing Nikki saw the same thing I did.)

My favorite interaction came from Chris Hrapsky. He's a KARE reporter who has had to feed from the #BTN11 trough a lot, as far as I can tell. (He has my sympathy.) I'm not sure why he was compelled to engage me, but rather than get all high and mighty, he spent a few minutes to learn a thing or two and ask a question. I was impressed.

Chris could be an egomaniac for all I know. He could have the IQ of a diseased cat. But in comparison to all those from KARE who engaged me regarding #BTN11, he appears to be the only person whose elevator goes to the top floor. I can barely watch KARE's newscasts these days, for a myriad of reasons, but I respect a guy who doesn't need to come off as holier than thou.

IT'S HARD TO KARE

I'm no expert or insider, I've said that before. But Ch. 11 has really gone down the toilet when it comes to overall quality of their news and newscasts, and I don't need to be an expert in order to see that. I don't have the time or patience to list all the ways the station has lost my viewership. I watch on a rare occasion just because I like torturing myself. The single best example of how the once-mighty NBC affiliate has gone in the dumper? Weekend sports kid Ryan Shaver.

CAN I GET A BARF BAG WITH JASON MATHESON'S FACE ON IT?

I have mocked the fact that TV viewers find the opinions of the local talking heads to be entertaining, interesting and/or important. It was enough to have the goofballs at Ch. 9 doing it every weekday at 9 a.m., but it must have been too lucrative, as Ch. 4 decided they needed to get in on the action, too. I won't rehash my previous rants about that.

Of all the talking bobos on local TV, nobody is more nauseating than Jason Matheson.

I use to respect the guy. He worked long hours and did whatever it took to land two seemingly decent jobs in the Twin Cities. And with all that effort, he has become intolerable.

I occasionally watch a few minutes of his TV chat fest on Ch. 9, airing weekdays at 10 a.m. and a dozen other times each week at any odd time the local Fox affiliate has time to fill on either of its stations.

First off, God bless Jason for playing up the gay stereotype of being fascinated with pop culture. I don't know if he gushes over the usual gay icons -- Cher, Barbra Streisand and Rosie O'Donnell -- but he gushes over a few people, I've learned over the years. Katie Couric immediately comes to mind. It sells, buddy, so keep it up, I suppose.

Why are people so fascinated about a gay man who will tell you how interesting a "Real Housewives" episode is? I'll never understand people.

A dude working in Minneapolis, talking about pop culture. Big fucking deal. But Jesus, Jason will try to convince you he has his fingers on the pulse of Hollywood, and connections you just won't get anywhere else. Maybe he does, I don't know, but every time I sample his schtick, he's making fairly obvious observations. He's like a poor woman's Wendy Williams. You want a window into the world of mindless sheep, watch Wendy's audience go nuts for her banal observations. Then get a local version of it by watching Matheson gab on Fox 9.

For whatever reason, his two-bit show has been given two summer tryouts as a national talker. I'm stunned that there's nothing better to consider. There can't be if his show is being given a tryout.

I tried to congratulate him for the opportunity. But I didn't simply kiss his ass, which seems to be the way you have to treat him nowadays.

I noted via Twitter to Matheson that it was a tough road to national stardom he was about to navigate, as proven by bigger names who have had summer tryouts in limited markets, but it was impressive nonetheless that he had been given the opportunity. Princess took that as an insult, of course, and had to self-stimulate his ego in responding to me. You'll have to take my word for it, I'm not in the mood to create Twitter images to illustrate it.

I don't read his tweets regularly, but he once bitched about the cost of an Uber ride from the local airport. I get that you don't make millions of dollars per year in local broadcasting, but it seemed silly to me. Perhaps he was trying to appear relatable to all the housewives who adore their gal pal.

I mocked him for his silly bitching, and of course his response was quite Sarigianopoulos-like, pretending that he's constantly under attack by me, somebody who rarely pays attention to his silliness.

He's a great success story whose ego can no longer be contained by his Buzz Boy frame.

I haven't listened to 10 minutes of his chick talk on morning drive radio, so I can't comment about how brilliant, or brutal, his long-form fawning over Shania Twain is.

And last, but not least: Jason, please convince those cheap bastards at Fox 9 to spend some cash on a theme song for your daily parade. Please don't tell me that the garbage you're using now is original, commissioned music. It sounds like royalty-free crap that would be used as filler during some lame children's show.

DID THEY HAVE A PRENUP? 

It's not nice to laugh at the failures of others, but I'll admit that the implosion of Paul Lambert's fairy tale marriage warms my heart a little.

Lambert, known as "Meatsauce" on 100.3 FM's morning show, is a great rags to riches story. He plays his part well, and as I've said before, he's The Fan's replacement for Jeff Dubay.

The hype and publicity he garnered for losing a few pounds and marrying Falen, a sidekick on the KDWB morning show, was a bit nauseating. Two people working for Clear Channel morning shows start dating, get married and live happily ever after. Congrats. More power to you.

It's inevitable that it's going to come up on the morning shows they work for. I assume it was discussed on KDWB. I rarely listen to morning radio, and when I do, I never listen to Dave Ryan. Ever.

But the nuptials got a lot of steam in the Twin Cities. There was at least one feature story in the local media profiling the love affair of these two "celebrities," and the duo didn't hesitate to market themselves as some sort of "Beauty and the Beast" duo. They'd find ways to use their marriage for promotion of themselves and/or their radio stations. I never watched the videos, but they had cooking videos that were shared on the radio station websites, if I recall correctly.

These clowns were nauseating, but that's what you have to be if you want to make money as a "personality." And of course the fairy tale marriage came crashing to the ground within a couple of years. I've read comments about why, but I've never heard or read a reliable explanation, and I don't care.

I don't revel in the failure of these fools, but it brings a wry smile to my face, knowing that their personal lives have been shown to be as fraudulent as their on-air personas.

QUICK HITS

To close out this Twin Cities roundup, here are random thoughts.

It's great that you get to sit on a WCCO couch once a week and give us your insightful movie reviews, Dennis "Rusty" Gatenby, but it's time to put your name to use as some mediocre communications coordinator for a local company and quit trying to hold onto the local TV limelight you lost so long ago.

It has been more than 18 months since I last published on this blog, and the last time I did, I noted what a waste of flesh Cheryl Johnson is. She's better known by her initials, B.J., and since she got in trouble for her idiocy back in 2016 she has been severely neutered by the Strib, which published the garbage she produced. The only reason they don't shitcan her, I'm guessing, is that she'll sue for discrimination. There ain't no way she's worth whatever they're paying her, and there ain't no way she's getting a better paying gig if she's kicked to the curb by the Strib. But it's nice to see the Strib has stopped publishing the garbage she use to produce, which seemed to lack any sort of editorial scrutiny.

I never, in my wildest dreams, would have guessed we'd still have sports talk on AM 1500. I don't know how that low-rated station survives, but kudos to all of you who looked to be out of a job more than a year ago.

And Kudos to the Pohlad family for proving that underachievement isn't limited to the MLB franchise you own. The inability of the Pohlads, whichever brother(s) run the radio/media conglomerate they built, to succeed in running a radio station is a fitting testament to the business savvy the family has demonstrated during the past 25 years.

Brian Oake is still an asshole. It just needs to be said more often than it is.

Last, and certainly least, is the namesake of this blog. I've predicted before that it's going to end on a very sour note for Dubay. His most recent run-in with the law ended with a plea agreement he made. He claimed that he couldn't risk going to jail for years as a result of the lies of a vindictive housemate he may or may not have been having sex with. Even if Dubay's hands were clean, the circumstances of it all show how hard it is to pick up the pieces after you've flushed your career and reputation down the toilet. And we know Dubay hasn't been able to walk the straight and narrow in the years since it all came crashing down around him. Unless Dubay comes to Jesus and makes peace with what's left of his life -- the dude is 50 years old, it's unlikely his life is ever going to be as cool as it was in his 30s -- it's not a matter of what ugliness will befall his life, it's simply a question of when does the next shoe drop. Good luck, Puffy, you're going to need it far more than most degenerate gamblers.

AND FINALLY

It's easy to throw stones at the local media. When pompous script readers like Jason DeRusha lecture the world on how precious his time is, and how great of a human he is for giving of his time, it's hard to avoid vomiting. Oh yeah, he's a culinary genius who eats and writes. He's multi-faceted!

When local "talent" is asked to fill an hour talking about the news and water cooler topics, you'll end up cringing at some point, assuming you're not lapping it up like a Pavlovian dog. (I'll never forget the excitement the recently departed Kylie Bearse expressed about the fascinating hour of chat they were about to launch at 9 a.m. a couple of years ago.)

It's too easy to throw stones because too many of the folks producing news or inane chat are mediocre at best, not nearly as well compensated as you might think. As I've noted before, plenty of folks get out of the biz for jobs that seem far less prestigious, and I'd bet my last $5 that income is a major factor in why former reporters find their way to communications positions with corporations or governmental agencies. Or, if you're fortunate enough to be a trophy wife, a la Natalie Nyhus, you can afford to stay home with your child. Why pass your paycheck onto a day care provider when you can spend those formative years with your child? Good gig if you can get it.

I have occasionally lavished praise, or simple observations, about developments in the local media. But more often than anything, I've chosen the low hanging fruit: Criticizing the mediocrity and mindlessness of the local media. The Twin Cities may be a top 20 market nationally, but our products are weak, and we're not unique. Media companies don't have the exclusivity and license to print money they once held, and they're not interested in being nonprofit entities.

I am pretty much guaranteed years of fodder, should I chose to accept it. But not so long ago, I listened as a motivational speaker discussed the merits of creating, regardless of the audience for your product. Sure, this blog is a creative outlet, and one that finds an audience. With little promotion these days I've found that plenty of people find their way to the blog. Not hundreds per day, but more than most "mommy" bloggers get, I'd wager.

This blog is a creative endeavor, but it's not the most satisfying creative outlet. A few months ago I finally started a new creative project that has nothing to do with writing, and I'm enjoying it. I'm going to keep at it.

I won't suggest that I'm never going to record another thought at this blog, but it hasn't been a priority for more than a year, and since the start of 2018, I've finally found a replacement for that creative expression this blog has provided, even if it is at Keith Leventhal's expense. (As his biggest fan, I had to work a backhanded compliment in one more time.)

Until something changes, I'm putting the blog on indefinite hiatus. Now, if we could just get Fox 9 to do the same thing with Ian Leonard....

In memory of Jeff Dubay

This blog is facetiously named after Jeff Dubay.

I'm not a fan of his work, and I never thought he was much of a talent. He loved sports, and he did anything he could to build a career talking about them. And did a pretty good job of it.

Drug addiction put an end to that, and probably an end to a lot of the meaning and purpose to his life, too. It's sad.

I'm guessing his local "fame" is a drug Dubay is as addicted to as the crack cocaine he can't keep out of his hands. Ironic how one addiction pretty much prevents him from partaking in another at this point. He's nearly 50 years old and his radio career is dead. When he gets out of the clink he might try his hand at another podcast, but a few hundred listeners a week aren't going to satisfy the addiction, or pay the bills.

Instead Dubay will have to rely on friends or family to help him keep a roof over his head since it's going to be hard for him to get a decent job when he's turned loose. Who wants to hire a two-time felon when there are plenty of people competing for the same menial jobs that Dubay is qualified for. After all, he has no other career of any significance, at least that we know, since he spent a long time trying to make ends meet on sports-talk radio.

He's nearly 50, he has no career to resume when he gets out of jail, he is a two-time felon and he has 10 years of probation to deal with. Odds are stacked against him.

Perhaps Dubay will make peace with his demons and live out the rest of his life clean and sober, finding some sort of meaning to the life he lives.

I can't help but wonder when we're going to read about his untimely death. I mean that sincerely.

Lesson to the kids: Drugs suck. Don't even consider dabbling with them. Your parent(s) taught you not to play with fire. Listen to them.

Do you love Jeff Dubay more than he hates you?

When I started this blog a little over two years ago, I needed some random, slightly clever title for it, emphasis on slightly.

Jeff Dubay seemed like the perfect minor broadcasting "celebrity" worthy of immortalizing with this blog. Little did I know his life would implode, again, soon after I launched the blog. I'm not a fan of his schtick, but I do root for him, despite his appetite for self-destruction.

My goal was never to build a a vast online audience or a social media empire, I just wanted a place for opinions to be shared on people who think they're really, really special because they are seen or heard daily in the Twin Cities.

I have promoted the blog a bit, but I've mostly given that up. I tried promoting it via a couple of avenues, but I've since come to enjoy watching blog postings find their audience organically. I share each blog post via Google, and usually tweet a link to it once or twice, otherwise I'm rather low key when it comes to promotion.

I won't cite a lot of analytics, but I will share a few interesting tidbits when I look at how this modest collection of essays has reached the masses during the two years I've churned out content.

I'm averaging about 12 posts a year, and I never intended for this blog to have weekly content.

I'm not delusional, page views are no promise that a viewer has read a word I wrote. But that's one of the few measurements I have available in trying to decide if anyone notices the content I create.

I've tried a few experiments with Google and learned that my blog postings are near the top of Google searches for some of the broadcasters I've toasted.

Number one, easily, is Alix Kendall.

My April 2014 blog post about Kendall and her lawsuit against the cops has generated more than 13,000 page views in nearly two years.

I'm no analytical genius, but it doesn't take one to know that female TV broadcasters are frequently Googled.

Kendall must be quite popular with the Googlers of the Twin Cities. As a matter of fact, there's a blog site that features thousands of pictures of newswomen nationwide wearing boots. (Rena Sarigianopoulos, my new least favorite broadcaster, has been featured on the site.) That blog started as a site dedicated to the worship of Kendall.

So the fact that Kendall generates the most traffic to this blog is not a surprise. I should probably write about her more often just for the web traffic, but I'm not as fascinated by her, or her boots, as some people.

It's a close race for first runner up. The edge goes to a guy known on KFAN radio as Meatsauce.

His post grabbed a lot of attention in June 2014 because I tweeted the link to him, and he tweeted the link to his followers. As you'd expect, Paul Lambert wasn't enamored with my critique of his success in radio. I don't hate him, I don't love him and I didn't flatter him when I reviewed his charmed life, but he shared my writing, perhaps to rally those who love him to his defense. It worked, it appeared, as my blog post about him blew up quicker than any other I've written.

But ultimately Kendall proved to be more appealing to the Internet than Lambert, not to my surprise, so he's a distant second with barely half of Kendall's page views.

In third place, not far behind Lambert, is a post about Kelsey Soby. I've penned a couple of posts about Soby, but it was the first one that has her at more than 6,000 page views. Not to my surprise she generates a lot of Internet steam, although that has slowed down thanks to her retirement from being a morning traffic babe.

In fourth place is my post about Emily Engberg. The out-and-about imp for the channel 5 afternoon chat fest is easy on the eyes, and she has managed to generate nearly 5,000 page views.

From there things drop off dramatically. No other blog post has generated 2,000 page views. The closest would be a long dissection of Jason Matheson's career. That post is a steady performer, helped in part by the fact that a Google search of his name sometimes puts my posting at the bottom of page 1. He's no Engberg, clearly, but he's an established broadcaster that has a strong name in this market. So thanks, buddy, for the blog traffic. I'm not a loyal fan of his work, but I like his attitude, so it's hard to root against him.

Some of my older blog posts have low page views, often because I didn't drop a name into the title, I suspect. Name checking the primary subject, if there is one, helps generate traffic. Posts that don't have a name in them are the worst performers, according to page views.

Although I have several post titles that reference Dubay, none of them top 1,000 page views. And my very first post, about Dennis "Rusty" Gatenby, has more page views than any Dubay post, although it, too, has less than 1,000 page views.

Showing promise is a November 2015 post about Shayne Wells, the new traffic babe at FOX 9. It has nearly 1,400 page views, which is pretty good compared to everything I've written about Dubay.

Another measurement of interest in the comments I receive. None of my posts receive a truckload of comments, and the comment tally includes responses I make, and I respond in some capacity to most of the comments I receive.

Many posts have no comments, but the post with the most is my Lambert analysis. His total is due, in part, to the fact he tweeted it to his followers, and several of them read it, and responded. The post manages to generate an occasional comment nearly two years later.

Kendall gets the most page views, but her post is second when it comes to comments. She has never tweeted a link to my writing, to the best of my knowledge, so I'm guessing that has something to do with it.

My first post about Soby is the third most popular with those who comment. Beyond that my blog has a small, random handful of comments.

These numbers don't tell you a lot, and I don't care. I just wanted a snapshot for comparison purposes should I continue this blog in the years to come.

One last note, my post about Keith Leventhal is doing pretty well. It has nearly 1,000 page views, which is impressive given nobody in the Twin Cities knows who he is. I suspect half of that traffic is due to the fact he visits the post on a daily basis.

Rena Sarigianopoulos doesn't need a part-time job

It's not exactly breaking news: Plenty of our local celebrities aren't living on easy street.

By local celebrity I refer to those who speak on TV or the radio. They're not celebrities, but we like to think of them as special, and act accordingly.

It has long been known that those who have "cool" jobs in major market radio don't necessarily cash fat paychecks. Sure, there are heavy hitters whose presence are a major draw, and their salary will reflect that. But even those folks aren't on the fast track to living next door to a lion hunting dentist, either in Eden Prairie or Marco Island, Fla.

Our local jocks are often shilling for products when they're not dazzling us with their dulcet tones. I'll never forget listening to Jeff Dubay shill for Body Solutions, along with many other local jocks, many moons ago. They were essentially shilling for snake oil, but as long as the checks were being cashed.

When Dan Barreiro was splitting time between sports radio and writing columns for the Star Tribune, he didn't do commercials. Not so long ago we liked to hold our "journalists" to a higher standard. Barreiro wasn't a journalist, but nonetheless.

Wait a minute. Why was Barreiro holding two jobs simultaneously for several years? Like radio, the newspaper game isn't exactly a license to print money. Sports guys working in television or newspapers by virtue of their jobs were a wealth of information, and ultimately opinions, therefore they were good candidates for the low-paying world of talk radio.

Barreiro obviously built a reputation and following that afforded him the luxury of not answering to bosses at the Strib, and therefore bailed out on the newspaper biz, which has taken it in the shorts since the Internet era began. (The rapid decline in the broadcast and print industries both have the Internet to thank for the deterioration of their business model, and the low quality product you're commonly served in 2015.)

Soon after Barreiro sold his soul to radio, he started endorsing products. You'd think that a successful, heralded personality like Barreiro would forgo attaching his name to whatever bidder came along with the fattest check, but obviously the money's good enough for him to grab. Whether his salary is hefty or modest, none of us tires of banking easy money.

Commercial reads and promotional appearances at bars, restaurants and Best Buy have long been a staple of the radio jock. I've heard it said that jocks can double their salary with work outside of, or in conjunction with, their on-air shifts. It's no surprise the time-honored tradition continues, even with the heavy hitters in the industry. Tom Barnard has made obscene amounts of money in his career, both at KQRS and in the commercial voice over biz, and yet he's still hustling gigs.

In recent years we've seen plenty of TV people wading into pools they wouldn't have dipped a toe into years ago. Just as newspaper folk have found income opportunities in radio, sports anchors and reporters from TV land have been offering their talents to the AM and FM dial. Mark Rosen has been the leader in this, dating back to the 1980s.

Randy Shaver has also had a long association with the local radio airwaves, albeit to a far lesser extent, as he mysteriously chats with the metalheads of the 93X morning show. And more recently Joe Schmit has made his presence felt on a recurring basis, thanks largely to his TV station also owning the local ESPN affiliate. (Perhaps he has long had a presence on the airwaves, predating the flip to sports talk, and I just never knew it.)

Although Schmit's arrangement is all about corporate synergy, he's no stranger to shilling for extra cash. Thanks to the loosening of our journalistic standards, the sports guys can hawk all sorts of non-sports products on the airwaves. Schmit has long shilled for local pizza, and was "Vacation Joe" under a previous ownership of Sun Country airlines, an arrangement that Schmit tried to capitalize upon once upon a time, going so far as to leave KSTP-TV for a while. That didn't work out so well. It turned out worse for his buddy, the former owner of the airline.

Schmit may not be hawking vacations this year, but he figured there's a buck or two to be made in the world of print, so he has his own vanity publication to capture them.

It's easy to blur the lines between sports broadcasters and corporate pitchman. These guys may be journalists, technically, but so are the anchors and reporters bringing us important stories via Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood. Rosen, Schmit and the rest are merely entertainment reporters.

Where it gets interesting is watching our local journalists find ways to double dip. Examples of this are fewer, but we've seen some entertaining double dipping in recent years. And I'm not talking about Elizabeth Ries or Jason Matheson, mostly because they're not journalists any more, although Matheson went through the motions not so long ago at WCCO-TV.

I'm not familiar with Ries' resume, so I don't know how much news reporting she did or was doing prior to whenever she arrived at KSTP-TV, but when the door opened to become a shill for local products under the guise of co-hosting a local "talk show," she gave up all pretense of being a journalist. She's now determined to milk it for everything she can.

She became a co-host on the company-owned chick talk station in addition to her hourly TV show responsibilities, at least until she gave birth to a child. She continues to smile for the TV camera on weekday afternoons, but ceased gabbing about celebrities all morning on the radio. She was reported to remain a part of the chick talk radio station as a contributor in some capacity, but I can't vouch for that actually happening.

Matheson has dabbled in news reporting, as I noted, but he's carved out his niche in celebrity talk, as evidenced by his tenure in morning drive at the same chick talk station. One morning radio job isn't enough to pay the bills, evidently, as he has been pulling double duty for a while now. He returned to his mistress, Fox 9, earlier this year after about two years apart, and there's no pretense that his job is to report news of any kind.

I get it, maximize your earnings while you can. That second job may not be necessary, but if it keeps you in the public eye and helps solidify your brand, (I detest that term,) rake in that extra cash.

Anchors can make good money reading a teleprompter and smiling for the camera, as if they're some sort of geniuses. Occasionally an anchor steps out from behind the desk, but often they have it easy. I often wonder how well Leah McLean would do if she had to actually report a story.

Reporters who are well established and specialized probably do OK, but reporting isn't a great gig.

A guy who went by the stage name "Bryce Williams" is well known now that he shot and killed a reporter and camera man during a live news segment this past summer. Williams was a former employee of the Virginia TV station the reporter and camera man worked for. He was reported to have earned $36,000 annually while employed by the station. Major market station? No. But Williams wasn't fresh out of college. Perhaps his odd behavior and issues during his previous employment resulted in his being mired in small market TV. Even had his career progressed to Minneapolis, I doubt his salary would have increased exponentially.

How great is the pay in reporting? You can find several examples of former reporters who have given up their career for something that has nothing to do with TV. As pointed out not so long ago, KMSP-TV's Kelsey Soby bailed out of television for a job she hardly seems qualified for. I can name a few people off the top of my head who bailed out in recent years for jobs in public relations, sometimes as spokespeople for governmental agencies. Somehow being a TV reporter makes you good at communicating the business of the county attorney, county sheriff or a police department.

Tim McNiff, a former sports guy who spent many years anchoring the morning newscasts at KARE-TV, bailed out last year to become the executive director of media relations for some Minnetonka p.r. firm. Really, he was the most qualified person for the job? A guy who had spent the previous decade reading news nuggets that others wrote is the best guy to relate to the media? Perhaps, but doubtful.

And why did McNiff give up a life in the spotlight? He was probably bored with it, a little bit anyway. And he might not have been in line for a better gig at Ch. 11, so that might have been a factor. You think he traded in a hefty paycheck and a few hours of on-air time every morning for a 9-to-5 job and a pay cut? Don't bet on it.

The bottom line: TV isn't all that glamorous, and even if it's not construction work, it's not a ticket to easy street. You'd better be lucky like McLean or able to parlay your pseudo-fame like sports anchors or Matheson if you want a nice house in Eden Prairie. And no, I'm not forgetting another option: Marrying a six-figure salary. What car salesman doesn't want pseudo-celebrity arm candy?

Which brings us to Rena Sarigianopoulos. For a while she walked the fine line few reporters do. She double dipped.

Yeah, Jason DeRusha must bank a few bucks for penning his brilliant observations about the restaurant industry. But other than weather people flashing their smiling mugs on the weather page of a local daily newspaper, few non-sports folks seem to make a habit of parlaying their brilliance into meaningful second incomes.

But Sarigianopoulos pulled it off for a while. She inexplicably was chosen as part of a trifecta that helmed a morning show on 96.3 FM. Alongside her colleague Eric Perkins, who also had no business being on local radio, Sarigianopoulos had an early morning gig on FM radio to go along with the many hats she wears at Ch. 11. I'm not sure how often she was absent from her radio gig, but if she worked every weekday morning, then she didn't have a day off, as she is a busy beaver during the weekends at Ch. 11.

Besides anchoring weekend newscasts, Sarigianopoulos would be on the air bright and early on Saturday mornings to do two hours of local chat, which often blurs the line between human interest and paid advertising. And she'd be on the air a few weeknights filing a report from the asphalt jungle. The woman had a crappy Ch. 11 schedule and yet she added weekday mornings to it? Why would she do something so ridiculous? I'm going to guess her mortgage payments were a little hefty for her KARE-TV paycheck.

But she's married now, and her trophy husband is a car salesman. He sells nice cars, too, it sounds. The commission ought to be good. And if so, Sarigianopoulos – who no longer cashes paychecks from 96.3 FM – won't have to find a second job to pay the mortgage.

For every overpaid face on local TV, there are plenty of others who aren't being compensated as if they're anything special. But the public likes to adore these fine folks as if they're royalty. If only they knew.

Let's not shatter the illusion.

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.

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.