The day the Ely City Council made us all look like misogynists

 

September 18, 2019, the Ely City Council made news statewide.  In a very bad way. 

In a special meeting that afternoon, Ed Spear was appointed to the Ely City Council to replace Tony DeFelice.  And in doing so, the council made themselves look like 19th-century backwoods misogynistic hicks.   

Spear was presented as a candidate along with Michelle Beecher.  In the prior City Council election Beecher finished second to Jim Alworth by a margin on 397 to 362.  Three councilmen, Kurt Carson, Jim Alworth, and Ernie Flangas criticized Beecher in tones that were all but saying “Get back in that kitchen and make us a sammich, woman!”  Never mind that Beecher’s role with the Rural Nevada Development Corporation has been stellar., because she was not only a woman, but a woman with a family, she was looked down on by a council that had already made their mind up before the meeting!   Not surprisingly, Spear was appointed.  And the tenor expressed by the council gained the city of Ely another black mark in the eyes of the state and those who might look at Ely as a place to bring their business.  Newspapers around the region criticized the actions of the councilmen and specifically their misogynistic tone. They deserved the vitriol. 

People wonder why so few people seek office in White Pine County.  Yes, the work load for these offices is immense.  But when some of the council and commissions fiercest critics won’t run, something’s wrong.  Ask yourself why George Chachas has the guts to run, while another of local government’s fiercest critics won’t, it say two things.  One, potential candidates know that they have to deal with unreasonable cretins, both in and outside of government, and two, as the old saying goes, they can dish it out, but can’t take it. 

Wyatt Cox

Today's Military Industrial Complex

Listening to RFK Jr's speech Friday afternoon immediately brought me back to President Eisenhower’s final address to the American People which warned of the dangers of the Military Industrial Complex.

Isn't it interesting that both a majority of Democrats and a majority of Republicans support the Military Industrial Complex, and that the Complex has grown to absorb not only the lamestream news media, Social Media, the Medical Community, and our educators. War good, artificial foods good, experimental drugs good, whole foods and natural healing bad. Home schooling bad. Churches bad.  

What have we become?  Where have our freedoms gone?

They lost favor in the 1960's, but everyone remembers their outdoor ads!

 Outdoor advertising today is pretty much a vast wasteland.  

Want to advertise to your community? Here's how NOT to do it...

 If you want effective local advertising, use your local media.  Honestly. 

Below are examples of twelve businesses that used Facebook's targeted ads function to place their own advertising.  Now, I don't know if these businesses set up their targeting wrong, but a couple of them that I talked to had the targets set up for just their surrounding towns.  So Facebook is most likely serving up their ads to anyone, anywhere, and charging them for the impressions!

So let's get real. I'd love for you to do business with me at KELY so we can keep Ely's original radio station up and running for another 74 years, but if you don't, do business with Karen at KDSS, or Teresa at the Bristlecone Tribune.  Local media needs your support, and Mark Zuckerberg and his crew constantly prove that when it comes to money, they don't care about you or your advertising dollars.

Wyatt

See all these ads below the break that Facebook served me today, March 5, 2024

It can't be THAT hard to get advertisers?

 After my comments on the air this morning, I was asked WHY DON'T YOU HAVE MORE ADVERTISING TO PAY THE BILLS?  

It's simple.  Locally operated businesses are in the distinct minority in Ely.  

Radio ratings less reliable than political polling

Radio ratings are worthless.  They really are!

The number of listeners measured by radio ratings leader are insignificant.  It claims to be scientific, but the sample sizes are so small that they can't accurately reflect who's really listening.  

So we tell our advertisers something simple.  Do you REALLY care about how many people listen?  Or do you care about how many people come into your business from advertising?  

Our late CEO Fred Weinberg carried off quite the stunt back in 1985.  In Tulsa, his station KELI offered $14.30 to each person who surrendered his or her Arbitron diary to the station. Listeners also were asked to write in “KELI” on every line on these surrendered diaries. KELI, which is not an Arbitron subscriber (even though its ratings are included in Arbitron’s listings), promised to send the completed diaries to Arbitron.

What happened?  Read on past the break...

Who's going to work there?

So special interests got their way at last week's Ely City Council meeting and Slot Parlors are now legal in Ely.  Yes, you have to have a restaurant and bar, but this slap in the face of people who actually invested in our community by a couple of locals who are better than you will have additional unintended consequences.  In a community that continues to lose population year after year, who’s going to work there?  We just lost another restaurant in Ely with the closing of the Cellblock, EmployNV tells us there are over a hundred jobs available including postal, sheriff's office, and the prison. If we can’t fill those good-paying jobs, how do we propose to fill lower-paying jobs?  Opinions mine, not necessarily those of the station, management, or sponsors...but they ought to be. 

Opposing opinions are welcome.