Jim Chapman to Bill Brady - Watch Yer Ass!

(photo lifted without permission from Butch McLarty's www.altlondon.org )

Dear Readers - and welcome to all you first time callers and any long-time listeners out there.

In search of a good example of a 'Jim Chapman Boner of the Week', I went to the Radio 980 website. I had heard bits of Jim's lecture this morning and it occured to me that this 'Bill Armstrong' fellow might want to sue him.

I won't bore you with the details but if you want the actual re-broadcast and hear it for yourself, it's not hard to find. ... that's AM-Radio 980 - or the old 'CFPL' you would tune into to when you were a kid and it was a Snow-Day and your mom didn't believe you.

Well, I went to the 980 website looking for the archives of today's broadcast, but didn't make it there.

Got stopped at the 'Bio' for Jim Chapman,

Turns out that he is not only the "Voice of London" - kinda of a stretch, since London voters have told him in no uncertain terms that 'NO, YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME,' in three elections.

Then there's his claim to being the 'Talk of the Town.' If true, Gott helpen London.

But it was his latest self-proclaimed undeserved claim for Greatness, which really says everything you need to know about the man's immense ego.

Check out this from the Radio 980 website's biography - "The Dean of London talk show hosts ..."

"The Dean" ???

"The DEAN" ????!!!???

... the 'Dean' as in 'Walter Cronkite'? The 'Dean' as in 'Edward R. Murrow?

Oh, that's right. Jim likes to use the excuse that he's not a 'journalist' - he's a regular guy who just happens to have his own radio show because he has just the right amount of sponsors in the development business to fund his air-time.

But 'The Dean'?

Well friends, I can't claim to know ALL the people involved in what makes good interesting 'talk' broadcasting in this town - but after listening for decades, I can tell you this -

that list would start with BILL PAUL, the absolute master of knowing how to talk to someone on the air and make them sound interesting.

there are the other obvious names as well - Steve Garrison, Ryan Spence, Pete James, Andy Noodleman, Shauna Rae ... and over at the other station, the now-retired Peter Garland and that McArthur fellow.

I've been listening to Jeff McA doing the talk show bit for about a year and he's the future of Local Talk Radio in this town. Usually knows what he's talking about, not afraid to make an opinion and able to walk that fine line of knowing how talk to callers with differing thoughts without sounding like a rude close-minded jerk about it. And most importantly - he's not a shill for advertisers. He don't suck up to anyone.

But for Jim Chapman to call himself 'the Dean,' shows nothing but disresect for Mister Bill Brady, the guy who pioneered in this town the very same thing of which Jim claims to be the grand-daddy. AT THE VERY SAME STATION!

Personally, I didn't really like Brady's show. But in retrospect, it was a generational thing - my parents were into Elvis and I was more of a Herb
Alpert and the Tijuana Brass kinda kid.

Then, as of now, Bill Brady, as an opinion-editorialist for the London Free Press, where he sends in an column every two weeks or so from Florida about how the young people are starting to wear tatoos and their skirts too short, yes, even I roll my eyes. Rory Leishman, he ain't. BUT, say what you will, Bill Brady IS and deserves to be THE DEAN of talk-radio in this town.

For anyone else to claim that title - while Bill is still alive(!) and at his old station (!) is about as disrespectful of our industry's Veterans as you can get.

Needless to say, it's also the the ultimate in self-delusion. But that goes without saying. I mean, if he's that far deluded in just where how brightly his star will ultimately shine (and for goodness sakes, we're only talking about morning show London Ontario AM-radio here!) just how seriously can you take anything else he says?

But as for the here and now - regardless of how irrelevent Bill Brady is in the Facebook/Twitter age where everyone has a tatoo- DEAN BILL BRADY has left his mark. ... Just the other day, I was listening to the Mister Know-It-All News Hour on Bill's old station and one of the current host's fans called in (after dragging her cat out of a tree and taking her pills for her lumbago,) and asked, "Bill? ... Is that you, Bill? Well-sir, it's almost the Thanksgiving weekend. Are we still going to be doing the Bunny Bundle this year?"

May 'Dean' Chapman be so lovingly remembered.

C'mon Jim. Sure you've been on the radio for a few years, but please have the decency to at least wait until the guy is dead before going around town proclaiming yourself as 'The Dean,' of local talk radio. Because that's just a no-class move.

And even before then, if you really want to be considered good enough for the local talk-radio hall of fame? ... Try taking some phone calls on air! That's why they call it "open-line radio."