thinks. This is his reality, in his own words and spoken with the passion and conviction of a man on a mission to quell any free thoughts, like his pal Fidel Castro.
I did Free The Birds “protest” back on Sept. 21, 2006, walking out of the stadium with 2,000 people so now I’m banned. Maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked after listening to it again.
Apparently, free speech is something that’s against the rules in his kingdom.
And this, of course, brings us to the kind of “relationship” Angelos has enjoyed with his broadcast partners over the years.
The integrity of the upper management of CBS Radio – namely Bob Phillips and Dave Labrozzi — must be questioned at this point if you heard what Angelos’ mandates are in the above recording. Of course, if you’ve ever listened to WJZ-FM 105.7 “The Fan” you know that I speak the truth about their inability to give you the truth.
Phillips and Labrozzi, via their exclusive arrangement with Angelos and their cozy TV simulcast on MASN, which is wholly owned by Angelos and financially supported via his unwitting cable subscribers, have given up all rights to free speech regarding their sports talk mouthpiece “The Fan.”
Since Phillips royally offended virtually everyone in the Ravens organization over the years when CBS Radio held the purple flagship rights, he was kind of stuck and had to take the Orioles once he was dumped in Owings Mills.
After that loss of the most significant sports property in the marketplace, “The Fan” has made two advertising claims that I find to be among the most phony and disingenuous pronouncements I’ve ever heard.
Let’s start with “Gameday Uncensored,” which was an obvious threat to “get tough” on the Ravens, like a jilted lover. In other words, “you broke up with us and now I’m going to shove it up your rectum if you lose.”
Since that and a very ugly squabble over the legality of their parking lot tailgate, Phillips has once again rankled not only the Ravens but their new broadcast partner, WBAL, by not following a gentleman’s agreement.
Against the wishes of John Harbaugh and the Ravens’ ownership, Phillips has thrown several hundred thousand dollars toward various players for midweek radio shows that I was bluntly told would not be allowed, although the team has no ability via the NFLPA to enforce keeping their players off of the radio at “The Fan.” I honestly think most of Baltimore believes it was Anita Marks’ sole role at the station to be a personal valet for Willis McGahee and Chris McAlister. She was sorta the “Miss Elizabeth” of Baltimore radio.
And if that’s not sadly comical, check out this graphic of a recent ad I saw:
No B.S.? Really? Has anyone in Baltimore heard their radio coverage of the baseball team that lost 98 games last summer and hasn’t played a meaningful game since my son was in the 7th grade? (He’s now 25, by the way…)
Mark Viviano, Damon Yaffe, Bruce Cunningham and Scott Garceau – and anyone else I’ve missed or anyone else who they’ll hire – don’t have the ability or “right” to speak the truth about anything Orioles related. But we all sort of know that, right? (See video above…)
The “rights” to the team’s play-by-play means that you DON’T have the right to tell the truth
