Screw DirecTV! Vote with your wallet and cut the cord!

 

OK, I’ve been listen to all the hosts talking about DEMANDING that DirecTV put Newsmax back into their lineup. I understand the demand. Most of these hosts have Newsmax as sponsors. But it amazes me that so many free-market Conservatives are making this sort of demand. It’s better handled by voting with your feet.

 

And people are doing just that. Variety magazine reports DirecTV lost about 400,000 subscribers in the third quarter of 2022, to stand at an estimated 13.5 million customers, per Leichtman Research Group. At the end of the third quarter of 2015, five weeks after AT&T purchased DirecTV, the company had had 25.47 million subscribers — 19.57 million from DirecTV and 5.9 million from U-verse. They’re losing paying subscribers, and they will continue to lose subscribers.

 

Why? People are cutting the cable and installing over-the-air TV antennas and streaming devices. Which is exactly what I did a year ago when DirecTV pulled the plug on One America Network. And in the process saved almost $200 a month.

 

The first thing I did is get a Roku device. If you have a TV set built in the last ten years it most likely has an HDMI port. Plug the Roku into the port and follow the instructions to connect it to your WiFi network. Then add channels to your hearts content, including Newsmax.

 

But there are tons of FREE Entertainment choices, including the Roku Channel, already installed. You can also get free local news channels from NewsOn, Fox5 Vegas, ABC 13 Las Vegas, and Fox 13 Slat Lake City. Also free movies from Xumo, Stirr, Amazon’s Freevee, and Tubi, and loads of free live streaming channels from Pluto TV. Apart from having YouTube on my big screen TV, my favorite is the Stream on a Budget Showcase channel, a curated collection of video and audio content, including the ABN Old Time Radio channel.

 

Want your familiar cable channels. They’re available through Sling TV. Starting at $40 a month for basic packages. FX, Fox Sports, NFL Network, College Sports, TBS, TNT, USA, Syfy, and a whole lot more.

 

Yes, other paid streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, Hulu, Amazon, all are available through Roku.

 

Roku devices start at under $30 and run up to $100 for the premium unit with a soundbar to give you much better sound than your TV will in most cases. Available through Roku’s website or at Walmart.

 

And if you want to replace your television while you’re at it, Walmart has a variety of televisions with Roku built in from ONN, Hisense, and Philips. At this writing, the ONN 32 inch Roku TV is under $100.

 

Screw DirecTV. Cut the cable, install an antenna for local channels, and connect to Roku for all the channels you can eat.Or watch.

 

Time. Never enough, and no one's happy.

 

Everybody complains about the time change, but nobody does anything about it.

 

Here, seriously, is the argument for Daylight SAVING (not Savings) time.

 

Some of you may remember back in the 70’s Energy Crisis days the US went to year round Daylight Saving Time for a while. After all, if it was good enough for America during World War II, it was good enough for today. Well, it went over like a lead balloon with many people, particularly parents who weren’t happy that their kids were going to school in the dark. Here in Ely Nevada in December is 7:00am Pacific Standard Time. That would be an hour later at 8:00am Pacific Daylight Time. All to get a 5:45pm Sunset and more daylight later in the day. Those AM Radio stations that can’t sign on until sunrise would also be screwed out of morning drive time by not being allowed to sign on until 8:00AM!

 

OK, you say. So just stay on Standard Time year around. Do you really want the sun waking you up at 4:15 in the morning in June? And that you’d only have sunshine until 7pm>

 

Granted that “time” is in many ways an artificial construct, but it’s a topic that makes everyone unhappy one way or another. Pick one, pick the other. Change or don’t change. Either way no one will be happy.

 

But then, that’s the way it is these days, isn’t it. Ain’t no one happy.

Propaganda and the beginning of EAS - CONELRAD

 Wyatt's Favorite Radio Episode 2 - A Forgotten Propaganda Broadcast and the Cold War beginnings of EAS - CONELRAD

Click the link above to listen.

The forgotten classic propaganda broadcast from World War 2, Our Secret Weapon, taking the foremost Nazi and Japanese Short Wave Propaganda broadcast and turning them on their ear.  An episode of Our Secret Weapon from August 30, 1942.  Also a 1942 World War 2 propaganda ditty from Don Baker "There'll be a little Smokie in Tokio" - perhaps a prediction?  And a public service program explaining CONELRAD to the general public.  Though unwieldy for broadcasters and somewhat confusing to the public, the 640-1240 scheme of CONELRAD thankfully never had to be used as it gave way to the Emergency Broadcast System, and the current Emergency Alert System. 

Forget the Vaccine, worry about DHMO!

 Shocking new statistics show that more people have died as a result of Dihydrogen Monoxide than have died from the COVID-19 vaccine.  

Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is perhaps the single most prevalent of all chemicals that can be dangerous to human life. Despite this truth, most people are not unduly concerned about the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Governments, civic leaders, corporations, military organizations, and citizens in every walk of life seem to either be ignorant of or shrug off the truth about Dihydrogen Monoxide as not applying to them. This should be of more concern to the American public than the COVID vaccine.  

Dihydrogen monoxide is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year.
What are the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide?
Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting, and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.


Dihydrogen monoxide is also known as hydric acid and is the major component of acid rain.  It contributes to the Greenhouse Effect, may cause severe burns, contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape, accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals, may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes, and has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.

Quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been found in almost every stream, lake, and reservoir in America today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in Antarctic ice. In the midwest alone DHMO has caused millions of dollars of property damage.

Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used as an industrial solvent and coolant,     in nuclear power plants, in the production of styrofoam, as a fire retardant, in many forms of cruel animal research, as an additive in certain junk foods and other food products, and the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical!

Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal.

You most likely have a product continuing a component of DHMO close to you right now.

Because Dihydrogen Monoxide, H2O, is water.

Think about that before you go off on a rant against the COVID-19 vaccine.  

More people have died from overdoses of Salicylic Acid than the COVID-19 vaccine.  A good friend almost died from a single dose of Salicylic Acid. Because she was allergic to ASPIRIN.  Water, Aspirin, any drug, any food could kill you.  The only way to avoid dying?

Stop eating

Stop drinking.

Stop breathing.

Life is a risk.  If you take no risks, you stop living.  

Think about it.  Live your life and don’t be scared.  Most importantly, protect yourself.  

A New Newspaper in Ely? What are you smoking, George?

 When I moved to Ely in 2008, I found a vibrant business community.  While it was obvious that the community had seen better times, there was opportunity for Ely to improve and grow.  The Ely Times and KDSS had active offices and KELY, recovering from a significant period after the AM and the FM KCLS were sold to different owners and KCLS moved first to Pioche and then to St George, Utah.  

And just like that, Ely went from four media outlets to three.  

Then Valley Broadcasting sold off co-owned KVNV-TV, being operated as a repeater of their Las Vegas Channel 3, to PMCM-TV.  There was a minor attempt to operate the station as an Ely television station, but it was short term as PMCM planned to move the station to New Jersey using some ancient FCC laws.  They succeeded.

The Ely Times was a vibrant concern when I moved here.  Ken Kliewer and Kent Harper produced a quality newspaper.  Until the paper was sold by the Las Vegas Review Journal, Ken Kliewer retired, Kent Harper moved to the RJ’s Mesquite property before he retired.  Apart from a short run under the tutelage of Rudy Herndon, the paper hasn’t been the same since.

When I first ran KELY from 2008 until 2011 I did six daily newscasts, aired City Council meetings on a same day delay, and until advertisers decided they thought it was too expensive, broadcast Bobcat Football and men’s and women’s basketball.  The expenses all came out of my own pocket, and I usually rode with the sports teams on the buses.  Then the owner’s partner, upset with the expenses, cut my salary and commissions to unviable levels.  I opted to exit temporarily the business and open whitepinenews.com.  I closed the web site after several people went to my employers and threatened them.  

If it hadn’t been for Floyd Brown and Fred Weinberg purchasing the USA Radio Network and hiring me to be the host of Classic Radio Theater, and to keep KELY running with Ken Kliewer hosting the morning show from 8 to 9am, I don’t know what would have happened to this radio station.  To be honest, Classic Radio Theater has had to be my focus.  In the past five years, we’ve put over 50 radio stations onto Classic Radio Theater from Boston to Anchorage to Florida to Dallas to Alturas CA to Atlantic City and dozens of stations in between. Since Ken Kliewer retired a year ago, I took over doing two hours locally every morning in addition to my three hour national show.  

Local input has been a challenge.  Every week White Pine County Sheriff Scott Henroid has been on the air, even after the newspaper dropped his weekly column.  Every week Cozette Eldridge has been on our station, even after the newspaper dropped her weekly senior news from RSVP.  Every Friday a member of the White Pine Ministerial Association has supplied spiritual commentary.  

But other members of Government have been disappointments.  Ely Mayor Nathan Robertson came in for a while at the start of the pandemic but eventually stopped.  The County Health officer made a few appearances but he eventually stopped.  And not a single member of the White Pine County Commission feels it important to talk to the community through our station.  (That in and of itself is nothing new.)  Even our head of the Tourism and Recreation board hasn’t come back on since the pandemic began.

Local advertising has been a struggle.  If it wasn’t for advertising on our affiliated stations, we would be struggling more than we are.  Advertisers from Reno, Carson City, Dayton, Genoa, Virginia City, and Hawthorne, pick up the slack where Ely businesses have let you down.

Media is not inexpensive to operate properly.  And businesses and consumers of media are being seduced by “free” Social media.  

Except Social Media can and does limit your reach dramatically unless you advertise with them.  And all you REALLY get through Social Media is opinion, not news.  And it’s decidedly left leaning opinion. All you have to do is look at the last year to realize that Facebook is NOT the place to get your news.  If Markie Zuckerberg decides your opinions aren’t leftist enough for him, you’re censored.  

So when former Mayor George Chachas continues to rant about the City or County needing to “bring another newspaper” in here, who?  Newspapers across Rural Nevada have closed.  All you have left is a newspaper that’s a shell of it’s former self...and us.

And when I retire in 2024 or 2025, there are no bets what happens here then.  Better embrace your remaining local media and support them while you can.

"Foreign Bride" websites not Human Trafficking but Human Fleecing

Originally broadcast in 2015, but still very relevant today. 

Back in 2011 I became increasingly frustrated with a number of late night commercials on ESPN promoting a Russian Dating website.  Tiring already of the pending coronation of King Obama II, I decided to embark on a definitely not-political piece.  What I found was stunning.  And life changing.  

Sam Peters Interview from 2019

Sam's running again in 2022.  Here's what you need to know about him!