Carolla stunt backfires! Cohost Danny Bonaduce gets his own radio show while Carolla is forced to fend for himself in the mornings...

Pouting radio boremeister Adam Carolla's sickout last week from his morning radio show heard in Los Angeles and other markets on the west coast has backfired as his professional cohost Danny Bonaduce has been cut loose from the second banana role and elevated to own afternoon radio show.

Bonaduce's forced entry onto the Carolla team a year ago led to blossoming ratings, new energy and unprecedented relevance for the struggling monotonous replacement for Howard Stern's broadcast. But despite the intelligence and wit Bonaduce brought to the proceedings, Carolla's jealousy has been evident on air in recent months, especially after Bonaduce began to receive rave reviews for his raw-nerved honesty in wake of his divorce, new television deals and public controversy that only raised his own profile while dragging the show along behind him. Last week, Carolla "called in sick," hoping to force his bosses to return creative control and to boost his salary, as they had rewarded Bonaduce.

As a result, the CBS Radio suits showed they've been watching this space, and have done what we'd asked them to do in October-- they've given Bonaduce his own afternoon show, stealing an hour from the mirthless laughfest of Frosty, Heidi and Frank.

Carolla will get one last chance on his own, along with a subservient female "newsreader" and sexual punching bag who also works for the television show based on the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com. While Carolla's firt season was filled with a cast of lowbrow braying buddies and concocted "characters," we'll bet he will again be saddled with a bright professional radio sidekick.

The news release arrived this morning:

CBS RADIO PRESS ROOM

December 21, 2007

CBS RADIO RENEWS "THE ADAM CAROLLA SHOW"

Weekday Morning Program Broadcast On Several CBS RADIO Stations Earning Its Best Ratings Ever

Featured Contributor Danny Bonaduce To Host His Own Afternoon Radio Program On KLSX-FM

On the heels of its outstanding summer ratings, CBS RADIO delivered more good news for Adam Carolla. The Company announced today it has signed a multi-year contract extension with Adam that positions the funny-man solidly in the highly competitive Los Angeles market for years to come.

THE ADAM CAROLLA SHOW can be heard on its flagship station, 97.1 KLSX-FM, weekday mornings from 6:00-10:00AM, PT, and can also be found on KUFO-FM in Portland and KXTE-FM in Las Vegas. In addition, the show is simulcast on www.adamcarolla.com, as well as the websites of KLSX (www.971freefm.com), KUFO (www.kufo.com), and KXTE (www.xtremeradio.com). THE ADAM CAROLLA SHOW is also syndicated through Westwood One in several major markets, including Seattle, Sacramento and Fresno, among others.

“Two years ago morning radio went through a seismic change, one that granted Adam Carolla the opportunity to launch his own unique style of entertainment in a coveted time slot,” said Chris Oliviero, Vice President of Programming, CBS RADIO. “THE ADAM CAROLLA SHOW has far exceeded our expectations and proven to be a listener favorite. We are thrilled to continue our relationship with Adam, and anticipate even more success for the program in the years to come.”

“I'm incredibly excited to continue my relationship with the fine folks at CBS RADIO,” said Carolla. “Launching a new show is never an easy task, but I feel like the past two years have laid the cement foundation and I'm now ready to throw the house warming party. I'm looking forward to returning to work on January 2, just not at 5:30 in the morning.”

The Adam Carolla Show began broadcasting in January 2005 and has steadily gained listeners to become one of the top shows among its target demographic of Men 25-54. According to Arbitron’s summer ratings, The Adam Carolla Show had its highest morning drive numbers in Los Angeles since the shows debut, and ranked in the top five with Men 18-34 and Men 25-54 General Market. Additionally, the program has gained a loyal following among female listeners.

In a related announcement, contributing show member Danny Bonaduce will relinquish his role on THE ADAM CAROLLA SHOW and begin hosting his own program on KLSX. Positioned between the highly rated Frosty, Heidi & Frank Show (10:00AM-2:00PM) and industry icon Tom Leykis’ program (3:00-8:00PM), BROADCASTING BONADUCE: THE DANNY BONADUCE SHOW will premiere Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008 on-air and online from 2:00-3:00PM, PT. Teresa Strasser will continue to contribute to the station’s morning drive program with Adam Carolla.

“This announcement will maximize Danny’s exposure on the station and the web where he has a national following. He has brought much excitement and entertainment to THE ADAM CAROLLA SHOW and we expect him to bring the same enthusiasm to the afternoon time slot,” said Jack Silver, Vice President of Programming, KLSX.

* * *

Carolla muzzles Bonaduce

We'll go out on a limb and say that Danny Bonaduce isn't long for the Adam Carolla radio show.

The volatile former child actor and reality TV subject was added into the broadcast earlier this year after Carolla had spent 2006 droning and wasting hours of formerly valuable airtime formerly ruled by Howard Stern in Los Angeles and a few other cities. Bonaduce, for all his steroidal and chemical-testosterone-enhanced aggression, brought an unexpected blast of reality, comedy and professionalism to the sho w, which had previously been filled with Carolla's monotonal and repetitive rants, misogynist tirades and long dead-air skits with "characters" like the notoriously unfunny "Deaf Frat Guy.'

And after the announcing that his wife would be filing for divorce in April, Bonaduce began to run rampant, causing real human sparks with third wheel Theresa Strasser, and effectively stealing the show from Carolla. Bonaduce was so unexpectedly good that we were led to write last month:

Strange but true and you read it here first: Danny Bonaduce is on the verge of becoming the new Howard Stern.

Well wouldn't you know it.

Carolla and his people have obviously lowered the boom on Bonaduce. In the days after our Stern comparison spread across the internet, Carolla began filling the show with comedian pals, and Bonaduce slid back into a supporting role. In the past days, Bonaduce has been announcing the fact that he is a "sidekick," repeating that he's a suppporting player, part of the Adam Carolla Show team, and not the star of the show.

Carolla, meanwhile, has amped up his stream-of-consciousness observational drones. Now it's about him again. His insecurity is pathetic. His talent is negligible. He's bringing down his own show.

Bonaduce's talent, his combination of macho dumbness, bookreading knowledge and quick-witted middlebrow wit makes him ripe for a show of his own.

(And by the way, whatever did happen to Howard Stern? He's not part of the public discussion any more, is he?)

A rotten weekend for Howard Stern

Despite his model girlfriend, bags of money and Hamptons estate, it's got to be a depressing Memorial Day Weekend for Howard Stern. Forgotten and indeed hiding out amid the First Amendment battles fought over Imus, Opie & Anthony and other radio jocks whose slide into offensiveness he'd greased in his glory days, he loses his schlubadub radio sidekick, and like Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, it takes days, and possibly weeks, for word to spread across the country.

And the very fact that the obese heroin-addicted and out-of-control Artie Lange would leave his six-year steady gig as comic foil because of guest role on a little-watched (though tres cool) Fx series, reveals how irrelevant the once-powerful Stern has become since moving his morning show to the subscribers-only Sirius satellite system-- while betraying Stern's sadistic complicity in Lange's decline and certain demise.

You probably didn't hear about it, but Artie Lange announced on Thursday that he's quitting the Stern show because he has a recurring role on Denis Leary's Rescue Me and a potential maybe possibly talk show on Fox.

In his years on the Stern show, Artie has battled heroin addiction, ballooned to more than three hundred pounds and kept up a grueling stand-up comedy schedule-- all to the amusement and encouragement of his boss, who's used Artie's troubles as comic and soap opera fodder. Artie says a doctor recently told him that if he doesn't change his lifestyle, Tabloid Baby's prediction of his Farley-Belushi-Anna Nicole-style death is imminent.

"I just feel burned out," Artie said. "Nothing is set in stone, but it's something I'm seriously thinking about. The schedule is destroying me. I love the show, and I love the people. I'm just really concerned about my health.

"I have to find a happy balance . . . none of this is going to be worth it if I drop dead at a Best Western in Milwaukee."

Even so, this incredible diss by a drunken comedian whose career, if not his life, was saved by Stern, is the latest step on the inevitable return of Stern's show --in some form--to free radio (not even Stern's "confession" this week that he'd considered suicide and had put one of his much-publicized guns in his mouth got him into the headlines).

Meanwhile, Howard has even more to worry about... as an amazing phenomenon is occurring on several West Coast stations on which monotonal lunkhead Adam Carolla has inherited-- and maintained (thanks to his business partner Jimmy Kimmel's consulting role with the station group)-- Stern's former morning slot. Forced to take on the volatile Seventies leftover and reality TV star Danny Bonaduce as a third wheel, Carolla has seen Bonaduce take over the show in the past month, as Bonaduce's revelations and confessions regarding his failed marriage have pushed the show to Sternian levels of honesty and compelling listenability. Bonaduce has interrupted Carolla's rants, injects his personal stories into every discussion and celebrity interview, and even angrily challenged token female Theresa Strasser to reveal more of her feelings about her own love life. Carolla reacted last week by stacking the show with comedian guests like the surprisingly obnoxious David Alan Grier to sideline Bonaduce as often as possible.

But with Strasser playing up the good-girl-bad-boy attraction to Bonaduce and Carolla finding his fratjerk humour increasingly beside the point alongside Bonaduce's in-your-face realness, the "Ace" is getting aced out of his own show.

Strange but true and you read it here first: Danny Bonaduce is on the verge of becoming the new Howard Stern.

Bonaduce may ankle Carolla show for Chicago!

Adam Carolla's crapulous LA morning radio show got a cattle prod up its flabby ass earlier this year when former child star and adult wild card Danny Bonaduce was forcibly injected into the mix. Carolla's show actually became listenable as Bonaduce brought some Howard Sternian (remember him?) reality and heart into what was otherwise dominated by Carolla's boring, repetitive, droning, know-nothing rants, ridicule of immigrants and "characters" like the Deaf Frat Guy.

But after Bonaduce brought the show to new levels of honesty and listenability in the days following the announcement of his impending divorce, the insecure Carolla and company clamped the lid on him, stuffed him back into the second banana cage and somehow have forced him since to play the often uninterested gravel-voiced support act to a Carolla dominance that's supported by his partner Jimmy Kimmel's contract as comedy consultant to the station group.

Now, Carolla may be left swinging in the breeze. Today's Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Don't be too surprised if the afternoon vacancy at classic rock WLUP-FM (97.9) remains open past the end of the year... Speculation is heating up that the Loop's leading candidate for the job is Danny Bonaduce, who's under contract through January as Adam Carolla's morning co-host on CBS Radio's KLSX-FM in Los Angeles. The former child star revived his career in the early '90s at the former WLUP-AM. That's where Bonaduce first worked with Jonathon Brandmeier, who now hosts mornings at the Loop...

Bad news for all!

Despite the inexplicable handjob administered to Carolla in the latest Los Angeles magazine, Carolla on his own will see ratings drop back to his Dave Damashek levels. Let's hope this news is an agent's negotiating tactic to get Bonaduce his own show in LA.

Send Carolla to Chicago. Danny Bonaduce belongs in Hollywood.

...a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Adrienne for the heads up...

Bonaduce announces divorce, steals radio show

Danny Bonaduce has livened up morning radio in LA since he was forced into the mix at the low-rated, monotonous and amateurish Adam Carolla show that replaced Howard Stern. While Carolla, whose job is protected by BFF Jimmy Kimmel's contract as a "comedy consultant" to the station group, continues his sour, droning, know-it-all dummy rants about dry-walling and left-turn signals, Bonaduce has added a lowbrow Sternian dose of reality.

And this morning, he took the show to a compelling new level that Carolla couldn't have imagined when he announced that he and his red-haired songstress wife Gretchen-- costar of his VH1 hyper-reality TV show Breaking Bonaduce-- are heading for a divorce.

Breaking chronicles Bonaduce's problems with drugs, alcohol, anger management-- and his marriage, so his revelation was a taser dart in the drabness, riding herd over an interview with an actress from ABC's Notes from The Underbelly.

Carolla, oblivious to the broadcast gold, tried to move things along, promising more guests to come-- until he obviously received a sleepy morning phone call from his guru during a commercial break, because he returned to state with great solemnity that a special announcement from Jimmy Kimmel would be saved until tomorrow.

Then Bonaduce took over. He said he doesn't want the divorce and loves his wife but-- demonstrating his skill in creating radio soap opera-- promised to be having sex with another woman by 3:30 in the afternoon.

He also said he warned Gretchen in a phone call last night that if she pushes him too far, he'll drag out the divorce, show up naked and drunk at the radio station, lose his job, go to jail and let her and their two kids starve.

Bonaduce said he apologized immediately, but no one believes the threat isn't real.

Stay tuned!

And that, Carolla, is good radio.

Carolla forced to partner with Danny Bonaduce!

It didn’t last a year, after all.

CBS has thrown a virtual hand grenade into The Adam Carolla Show, the grating, droning anti-radio program that replaced Howard Stern in LA and five other markets-- firing Carolla’s on-air sidekick and replacing him with the unpredictable, volatile and violent former child star and current reality TV subject, Danny Bonaduce.

The shake-up, coming weeks before the show's dreaded first-year anniversary, was long overdue, and we've been calling for it since we first got caught in a traffic jam with these dullards. Carolla’s show has literally been an anti-radio broadcast, full of dull, repetitive, droning monologues by Carolla and the abrasive, honking voice of comedy writer-cum-“sports personality” Dave Dameshek, who, along with Carolla's executive producer and an on-air character, was fired in the bloodbath.

Surviving the axe were Carolla and his female co-host, Teresa Strasser, who joined the show six months ago. As with Carolla and Dameschek, Strasser is part of the Jimmy Kimmel comedy circle. Kimmel, the lunkish host of a little-viewed ABC late night talk show, is the CBS stations’ radio comedy consultant, hired in the wake of Stern’s desertion, and the main reason Carolla and his aggressively bad show have remained on the air this long.

Bonaduce, a drug, alcohol and steroid-abusing timebomb, as exhibited on the reality series, Breaking Bonaduce does not promise the most obvious chemistry with Carolla and Strasser, who present themselves as cerebral comics, while wallowing in a puerile, offensive, sophomoric pool of dead air. But the explosive former child star does promise publicity and more likely, an explosion.

Turning the ego-flaunting Carolla into one-third of a morning zoo team places the show in line with several other FM radio shows in LA, feature two males—one wacky, one trying to keep order-- and a third-wheel females.

The original was Jamie Frosty & Frank on the competing 98.7, which lasted two years until Frosty & Frank were abruptly fired and replaced by Bonaduce.

Frosty and Frank teamed up with a woman named Heidi, and as “The Triplets” (right) now follow Carolla’s show on 97.1. Bonaduce was fired from 98.7 a year and a half ago because of those drug and alcohol problems. Jamie is now teamed with Jack and Stench. So now, LA has a trio of incestuous triplets: Frosty, Heidi & Frank, Jamie, Jack & Stench and Adam, Teresa & Danny.

Make that Danny, Adam & Terry.

See this as another indication that Howard Stern will soon be lured into syndicating or simulcasting portions of his satellite radio program on the newly-christened “free” FM.

The 2007 Tabloid Baby Awards

The Tabloid Baby Person of The Year award has been about as anticipated as Time magazine's copycat honors, but we make it a habit to not necessarily bestow it every twelve months. For us, it all began in 1999, when Steve Dunleavy and Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. were given the first special Tabloid Baby public service awards, and debate and controversy would follow as honors were handed out in the years to follow. Who could forget the uproar among "serious" journalists when Tabloid Baby alone cited NYPD Blue actress-turned-CNN anchorette Andrea Thompson for her courage and style in the transition from sexy scriptreader to sexy TelePrompter reader and named her Person of The Year in 2001?

And debate still rages after the controversy that erupted when CNN's "anchorman" Anderson Cooper won the honor in 2005 for representing the end of the Hestonian "anchorman" era with his groundbreaking "Brokeback Anchor" style. We saw him as the herald of more than the gay sensibilities of the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com, but the new brand of ironic, unauthoritative newsreaders like Katie Couric and silly, posturing Brian Williams. But neither Katie nor Bri-Bri won the honor for 2007-- not as Tabloid Baby's Person of The Year, nor even its Journalist of The Year for 2007. There are two separate honors this time around. We'll get to them soon enough.

But first... the Tabloid Baby team has come up with others who stood out in the Tabloid Baby universe in 2007 (and notice how we don't make the decisions in November like some people):

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Neil Innes

Neil Innes is the greatest musical satirist of the past fifty years. For most of that half century, he's made a monumental, if deliberately subtle, impact on popular culture, music and comedy. Having made his mark on rock 'n' roll, television, art, publishing, children's programming and philosophy, Innes was hard at work this year, overseeing pristine reissues of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Rutles catalogue, recording and releasing the first new Bonzos album in 35 years (earning four stars in MOJO), and completing filming of the musical documentary about his life and work. Innes set the stage this year for what will surely be a time of recognition and appreciation as Frozen Pictures’ film, The Seventh Python, brings the world up to date on this brilliant artist.

TELEVISION & FILM PERSONALITY
OF THE YEAR
Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.

After decades as a cult figure thanks to his fascinating pubic access show Mysteries from Beyond The Other Dominion, Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of Hollywood stardom in a year of mainstream breakout performances on network television, on film, and on the Internet He’s been a regular on The Tom Green Show web phenomenon, done featured acting roles on television series like The Ghost Whisperer, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Sunset Tan and Mad Men, appeared in films including Nothing But The Truth and even inspired a character in The Bigfoot Gang, the followup from the creators of Napoleon Dynamite.

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
The Hudson Brothers

Twenty five years after they went their separate ways, the Hudson Brothers reunited for their first group photos in twenty years and their first group project, albeit behind the scenes, in producing and supervising the music for The Seventh Python. The Hudsons, an influential rock ‘n’ roll group whose career was elevated yet stymied by success as a network television musical comedy team in the Seventies, is the rare act from that decade that has not cashed in on the VH1-TVLand nostalgia market, but individually blazed new trails in music, television and film. With their classic television series about to be released on DVD and talk of an onstage reunion, we look forward to more Hudson Brothers activities in 2008—as well as a potential boycott of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and its parent, Rolling Stone magazine, if the contribution continues to be ignored.

RADIO PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR
Danny Bonaduce

Danny Bonaduce may be best known on the national stage as a tabloid trainwreck, a steroid-fueled angerball whose lack of self-control and past addictions to drugs and alcohol had the former childstar on a balls-out death ride on the Highway to Hell. But radio aficionados others know Bonaduce as an experienced, hard-working professional personality whose career reached a welcome pinnacle after he as hired a year ago as co-host of the failing, flailing Adam Carolla Radio Show that was filling Howard Stern’s timeslot. Bonaduce’s forced entrance into the mix of fawning worship of the dullard Carolla injected an adrenalyn shot of relevance and raw-nerved reality that peaked when his wife, known to millions from their reality TV show, announced her intention to divorce. While Bonaduce reached Sternsian levels of greatness, he was quickly muzzled by a jealous Carolla, and recently cut from the show after a six-month on-air backstabbing campaign by Carolla and his acolytes. KLSX, which treasures Bonaduce, has given him an afternoon slot. Watch that show expand in 2008 as Carolla fades from the dial.

OVERLOOKED
INTERNATIONAL NEWS STORY
OF THE YEAR
The Israel Baseball League

The story of the first season of the Israel Baseball League may have been a pleasant footnote in sports history if not for what transpired after the final pitch of the season, when Our Man Elli in Israel (Elli Wohlgelernter to those in the journalism world) wrote an article about what really when on during that season in the sun, uncorking a flood of allegations, outrage, whiles setting off a chain events that included a federal fraud lawsuit against the league’s founder, the resignation of the league’s commissioner and much of its advisory board, the creation of a rival league, and announced plans for a second season in 2008. Remarkably, nearly every step in this incredible international saga of mismanagement, betrayal, intrigue and broken dreams was broken exclusively here, on Tabloidbaby.com, while the mainstream media either followed our lead or ignored the story altogether. While the official spin continues this month with the brief arrival of a IBL booster blog, and a naïve, inaccurate Bleacher Report story naming the IBL’s feelgood PR report of the first season as “The Best Sports Story in 2007,” the behind-the-scenes soap opera is far from over.

His work on the story made Elli Wohlgelernter a candidate for Tabloid Baby’s Journalist of the Year. But was it enough to grab the honor?

Tabloid Baby's Journalist of the Year and Person of the Year for 2007... are ahead...

Carolla fans weren't careful what they wished for...

With word that radio droner Adam Carolla has wrested-- and wrestled-- back control of his morning Los Angeles radio show, Carolla's core group of male fans is literally giddy with a homoerotic glee not seen since the N'Sync farewell tour.

Fan boys and dumb jocks alike have been spreading their wet tears and slobber across the new UN-Official Adam Carolla Show Message Board that they quickly set up to swap spit in their private he-man woman hater's club after-- as we reported exclusively-- CBS Radio suits stupidly shut down the official message board earlier this week because of all the negative comments posted by Carolla boytoys who were worried their hero was about to lose his show to Danny Bonaduce, the former child star and radio veteran who was hired to save the show a year ago.

And here's why Carolla's tantrum
and backstage manipulations
against his cohost
backfired...

Bonaduce's presence in the morning mix is what injected a jolt of real-life vitality that opened it up beyond the small-minded, anti-intellectual, immigrant-hating, woman-fearing, fake macho, blustering blockhead know-it-all hole that Carolla mines-- and did indeed raise ratings and make the show a viable, if tail-dragging morning show.

It was Bonaduce, after all, who was most in demand in 2007, with offers to host a show in Chicago, as well as working more television gigs that will earn him millions.

Carolla's meanspiritness in the past months and his bullying backstabbing of Bonaduce is reflected in the humourless braying of his fanboys, who, as their reaction to these posts can attest, wouldn't know a joke if it bit them on their cottage cheese asses.

It also bodes ill for Carolla's radio future.  While he managed to move his competition to another timeslot, his survival has more to do with his connections to comedy star Jimmy Kimmel and Kimmel's consulting deals with the CBS Radio Group than his own prospects.   Without Bonaduce, and left to his own devices, the Ace Hole is bound to beat the same dead horses morning after morning, to the approving chuckles of his in-studio mopes and his listless, obedient fifties-style "news girl," and be out on his own ass by next December.

Unfortunately, it's looking like the joke is on Carolla's boypen.

PETITION: KEEP BONADUCE ON L.A. RADIO!

We reported last month that Los Angeles radio personality Danny Bonaduce might be leaving his role on the execrable Adam Carolla Radio Show for an afternoon gig at WLUP radio in Chicago. Though reports last week state he’ll be staying with the Carolla show in LA, insiders tell us his future here is still up in the air (he could host the Chicago show from an LA studio, just as Jonathon Brandmeier once hosted KLSX's show from Chicago)-- and fans on the Carolla message board note that Carolla and his battered radio wife Teresa Strasser have openly marginalized Bonaduce even further lately.

At their request, we’ve started the following petition:

Dear CBS Radio bosses:

Please do not allow Danny Bonaduce to leave the Adam Carolla Radio Show and Los Angeles and take a job in Chicago!

Danny is the sole ray of light in an extended dark morning, and the one brighting shining hope for talk radio since Howard Stern left the business almost two years ago.

Danny's personal history and experience in Hollywood have only added to his character and personality. His ability to cut through radio artifice and speak straight from the heart about his personal troubles, from his addictions to failed marriage, not only inspire thousands of listeners but make for compelling, appointment radio (much more so than Carolla’s latest regurgitated “rant” about traffic signal lights).

Danny Bonaduce is a great radio personality who follows in the tradition— and combines the best-- of Jean Shepherd, Garrison Keillor, Michael Savage and Howard Stern himself. And, as his on-air treatment by Carolla indicates, he is more than ready to take over your KLSX morning radio slot on his own.

If the competition in Chicago is really so hard-up to fill a hosting slot, please offer Adam Carolla instead (and give Danny the KLSX morning slot). They can save transportation costs by letting Carolla do the show from a studio or his home in LA, as Jonathon Brandmeier used to do.

Also, please give Danny the Frosty Heidi and Frank slot. Now.

Sincerely,


______________
A KLSX Listener

Print this post, cut out the petition and mail it to

DAN MASON
President and CEO
CBS Radio
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036

Or cut and paste it to the CBS Radio comments page here.

Or post your comments here and we’ll pass them on.

Is Carolla being aced out?

So what's up with radio suck king Adam Carolla?

We reported back in October that the radio suck king might soon be walking away from his despoiled morning show gig, and now, after the actions of the past couple of days, his fans are fearing the prediction's come to pass. Sez one:

"I think Adam has left the show and some suit came up with this Adam is sick angle to keep the Carolla fans listeneing, while they slowly hand the reins over to Danny. I also got the feeling that Norm McDonald might be the new co-host. The Danny & Norm show in January 2008 is what I predict."

The monotonal, droning morning man who wound up in the unenviable position of taking over for the late Howard Stern and then spent the next two years soiling the spot beyond repair hasn't been showing up to work the past couple of days, even missing out on his Stern-imitating awards show for the oxymoronically "best" moments of his show.

After Carolla apparently took time to cross the Writers Guild picket lines to appear as a guest this morning on the strike-breaking Carson Scably TV show, rumours and speculation have been running wild on the Carolla fans message board, with some seeing signs that Carolla may be leaving the show after all, and that second banana Danny Bonaduce, forced onto the show earlier this year, after Carolla's handpicked team failed miserably in 2006, will get the slot to himself as Tabloid Baby and fans of good radio have petitioned.

But considering that Carolla's Scably appearance was taped days ago, it's more likely he skipped work and handed the show to Bonaduce to duck the inevitable prank calls from WGA members.

Or did he do it to take the unwelcome competitor out of the picture? Ironically, Bonaduce, the quick-witted, colorful and very human show business veteran-- and sole bright spot on the dreary show-- seems to have slipped into a despairing funk in wake of his divorce, bizarre public appearances like his violent actions at the Fox Channel Reality Awards Show and constant undermining by Carolla and his cowering female protege.

Some message board fans suspect Carolla is leaving Bonaduce hanging, to allow the volatile performer to hang himself.

We'll see. The Carolla show is headed into another long hiatus. The last New Year's hiatus contained the surprise massacre of Carolla's staff and the hiring of Bonaduce. So stay tuned. The morning nightmare for Los Angeles and several other western regions may soon give way to light.

Exclusive: Adam Carolla fans in a panic

Is Adam Carolla finally leaving morning radio? For once, the monotonous morning radio offender is keeping his trap shut, and the void is being filled by anguished squeals of panic from fans on his message board. Carolla's unusual absence from broadcasts this week— and the unprecedented decision to allow second banana Danny Bonaduce run the show with Carolla’s weepy, depressed newsgirl-- have fueled speculation that the self-proclaimed "genius" is playing a game of chicken with his CBS Radio overlords— a game, sources say, he is about to lose.

Carolla, formerly Jimmy Kimmel’s sidekick on the fake-macho Man Show and hero to the overweight, underlaid xenophobic woman-fearing fratboy crowd, was promoted heavily as a “genius” comedian when he was handed Howard Stern’s morning slot in LA and other west coast stations two years ago. But an amateurish, immature and grating presentation resulted in low ratings, and in January 2007, led CBS Radio bosses to yank creative control, fire his on-air staff, and install radio pro, former child star and tabloid figure Bonaduce as co-host.

Bonaduce’s presence, honesty and knack for generating publicity led to a ratings rise, while at the same time an on-air insult and cold shoulder campaign by Carolla and his female newsreader. We reported exclusively in October that Carolla was ready to walk away from the radio show to concentrate on more suitable pursuits and despite refutations from his fans, the story has apparently come to pass.

As speculation intensified this week and the insider site LA Radio.com reported on the possibility that Carolla is out, The Official Adam Carolla Show Message Board, run and censored by CBS Radio, is banning commenters who support Bonaduce or who link to news posts on sites like this one, while other commenters point to indications that Carolla himself is monitoring fan reaction and commenting under a pseudonym.

And today, with no official explanation from their leader, fans are in a real tizzy, as reflected in this post from Carolla fan “Jericho”:

OK people, enough talk. Time for action. It seems quite obvious to me that something is going down and Adam's fans need to show their support. Jack's bosses may or may not be checking out this message board, so we need to take the message straight to management. And don't think this effort would be in vain.

There was a similar situation with Loveline a few years back and it seems like us sploozers over at The Loveline Companion may have actually made a difference...

I'll summarize. Adam was in contract negotiations and many people from the Companion message board contacted the bigwigs at Westwood One and Adam got a raise and stayed with Loveline until he got the morning show. According to reliable sources, the support from the community had at least some influence on the contract extension.

So, I suggest the campaign begins. First, we start doing some research to find e-mail addresses and phone numbers of CBS radio management and post them here. Then everyone writes or phones with their respectful, intelligent support of Ace. If you slam anyone, give well thought out, coherent arguments about why you don't like them. Writing "Adam rulz!! Danny and Jack suck it!!!!" won't help. Put some thought into what you say/write…

Here's a list of e-mail addresses to start with. I think this may get you to some of the top dogs at CBS. Dan Mason is the President and CEO, apparently. E-mail him and cc the others. Hopefully some of you will add more people at CBS as well as sponsors…

(--NOTE: Email addresses omitted--)

Also, the physical address and phone number of corporate HQ:

CBS RADIO
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
212-***-****

Act quickly. Time is of the essence.

Replied a commenter called "mr421":

DONE and DONE. i already got an auto-reply from one of the dudes saying he was not available.

Ironically, our own petition in support of Bonaduce helped convince CBS Radio bosses to keep him from ankling to Chicago, and give him the substantial salary boost and contract extension that has apparently led Carolla to see the writing on the wall.

Stay tuned.

(Carolla's show goes on an ill-advised hiatus beginning Monday. Live broadcasts, with on air staff TBA, won't resume until January 2nd. The Carolla staff massacre took place during last year's hiatus).

Update: Carolla says it's him or Bonaduce

Our wish that Danny Bonaduce be handed the radio slot he now supports under subpar superbore Adam Carolla may be coming true, after all. Industry insider site LA Radio.com reports in its subscription newsletter this morning that Carolla's sickout this week is believed to be a game of chicken in which he's telling his bosses it's a choice between him and the volatile former child star.

The power play may not be the best move for the lowbrow beetle-browed Jimmy Kimmel lieutenant. While Carolla continues to feel his way around the radio game two years after he was handed Howard Stern's morning slot in Los Angeles and a few other cities, Bonaduce's forced arrival eleven months ago has increased ratings while his performance as an unwanted outsider second banana, with his brutal honesty, unleashed id, personal drama and ability to win publicity for himself and the show, has established himself as radio's true and sole heir to the late Stern (while placing him in demand to host his own show elsewhere).

LA Radio.com reports:

Carolla a Go Go

KLSX morning man Adam Carolla has been on sick leave the last few mornings. There is speculation from a number of sources there is a showdown between Adam and management concerning co-host Danny Bonaduce. One source said that Adam was holding out until Danny is gone. “This is news to me,” said KLSX pd Jack Silver. For the past couple of mornings Adam has been a no-show claiming to be sick, but was well enough to be on Dr. Drew Pinsky’s KGIL show on Tuesday for almost an hour.

“I have to take Adam’s word,” said Silver. “When an employee says he's sick, short of going to his house with a doctor, I have to take him on his word.”

The dilemma for management is the fact that the KLSX morning show has been on a steady rise since Danny signed on a year ago. If there is a conflict, will Adam and Danny be able to patch things up? We won’t know until next year because Adam begins his holiday break tomorrow.

In introducing a segment about comfortability in the workplace, Danny offered the following one morning this week: "I've been kidding around the last few days why I hate Adam Carolla, but now it doesn't seem nearly as funny because the poor man is sick. If I know Carolla like I believe I do, to miss work he is very, very ill. So let me rephrase, I don't hate Carolla at all. I admire him greatly, but the man is so quirky and he has put such a spell on certain things you can and cannot feel comfortable about doing at your own workplace."

(A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to the Carolla show fanboys for keeping us posted.)

Commenters on Carolla: Ace Man or Ace Hole?

Our coverage of the Adam Carolla radio fiasco has generated the expected debate but also comments on both sides of the issue that are far more eloquent than our own. And with the new Carolla fan message board already censoring or blocking certain users, Tabloid Baby has become, by default, the clearinghouse for debate on the issue:

Is the man who was given Howard Stern's
morning slot in Los Angeles
a shortsighted, petty, insecure fool
for maneuvering the ouster of his co-host,
the brilliant, relevant radio veteran
Danny Bonaduce, whose forced insertion onto the
on-air team pulled the stultifying, small-minded,
mean-spirited show from failure and guided it
to the high ratings that were cited by management
as the reason for renewal (a period in which,
incredibly, a jealous Carolla muzzled Bonaduce
to regain the spotlight)?

Or:

Did Carolla spare his listeners an annoying distraction, freeing himself to grumble uninterrupted through his meandering "bits" (they can't really be called "rants")
about traffic signals, grout and lazy immigrants,
while opening more airtime to "characters"
like David Alan Grier and the Deaf Frat Guy?

In any case, as we head toward 2008, a year which will surely see Carolla's final months as a radio host and Bonaduce and Jonesey's reign as LA's twin pillars of afternoon radio, we offer this point/ counterpoint sampling of Tabloid Baby readers' opinions, taken from our comments section:

POINT:

Any fan reading this should at least admit that Adam works, with the benefit of an inflated paycheck, BECAUSE OF JIMMY KIMMEL. It's who you know. We can agree to disagree on whether this clown is a misogynist or not.

When I DO listen, I hear the whining self-indulgent, smug, self-entitled, better-than-you ramblings of one very, very lucky guy. Forget those humble beginnings or something? Yeah, figured as much. Ironically, the 5 or so times I tried to listen to Howard's replacement I punched the button mid-rant... before the commercial break.

This jerk's reasoning (bug management to get rid of the person who made the ratings go UP) reminds me of Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin. Both, who were able to keep the comedy going and deal with their differences and incompatibility as best as possible.

In this day and age of downsizing, a mediocre Adam Carolla-type should never be encouraged to spit out tantrums and ultimatums. His ratings (pre-Danny) simply don't warrant it. He just isn't a unique voice or gifted broadcaster. His friends in high places ARE special -- and lucky for this hammer-pounder he's in an air-conditioned studio and not out working some construction project, where verbally gifted A.D.D. dropouts usually end up.

But yeah. Definitely get rid of the guy who made the abysmal ratings go up. Screw Adam's agent; he should send a bonus check straight to Bonaduce... someone who may be frustrating and impossible but at least he's vulnerable... for the benefit of our entertainment.

"Adam spent 12 years doing a show largely dedicated to helping women with issues of sexuality and health in a non-judgemental atmosphere."

Spare us. This show was created and launched by someone else. Filling in on the co-host seat was not difficult.

Let this egotistical buffoon land in the morning show graveyard, the sooner the better.

COUNTERPOINT:

The person writing this column is a loser's loser!!!!!!! Get a life deadbeat.

Adam Carolla goes gay, explores feminine side

We haven’t done any extended listening to the Adam Carolla Radio Show in a couple of weeks, and we have to admit we haven’t missed the amateurish borefest that two years ago had the misfortune of replacing Howard Stern’s brilliance with its host's solipsism, insecurity and arrogant mediocrity.

We’ll admit, we threw up our hands when Carolla engineered the ouster of the entertaining Danny Bonaduce, whose presence on the show in 2007 saved it from certain cancellation, before Carolla staged a backstabbing coup, just in time for Christmas. Without Bonaduce’s genius crowd appeal, Carolla seems to be on the exit ramp once again, but recent events have shown he’s tap dancing to stay afloat on the rolling log of show business survival. He crossed picket lines to appear on Jay Leno’s show; this week it was announced he’ll join other D-listers competing on Dancing with The Stars; and according to another regular listener, he’s shifting his show focus to appeal to an audience beyond the xenophobic, women-fearing fratboy crowd he was molded to serve.

“Sam V,” like us, was banished from even viewing the Adam Carolla Show Message Board for posting an item that the webmistress found inappropriate (translation: “Not worshipful to Carolla”). In a message to Tablidbaby.com, he offers a different take on the show, which we post, with footnotes:

After being banned from the "Official Adam Carolla Show" board (1) for the fourth time. I thought I would write you with the new direction the show is going.

Since Adam's show will never be a male ratings contender anymore, it seems like Adam is now targeting chicks and gay dudes (nothing wrong with that):

* Adam is now on Dancing with the Stars (2)
* Lynn and Alex America’s favorite gay couple (3)

* First they had Teresa's "fake" wedding

* Now they made a big deal about Teresa's engagement (4) (she even barged into Frosty, Heidi, and Frank (5) to yap about it, who cares?)

I can list dozens more examples, but If the topics aren't gay or female-related they are boring crap like one of this week’s topics:

* "Wedding Songs that you WANT to hear, and Wedding Songs you DON’T want to hear.

* Movie reviews that you can't understand because a guy with a Nicaraguan accent (6) reads them ( I get it, funny the first dozen times).

I don't see how this show can stay on this long.

On the upside, I can’t wait for Adam’s fans to see him wearing spandex doing the tango. I can hear it now: “Is this The Man Show (7) Adam?”

FOOTNOTES:

1 See TabloidBaby.com, January 11, 2008: “Carolla, unfettered! Carolla, unlistenable.”

2 Tabloidbaby.com, February 19, 2008, “Adam Carolla is the new Heather Mills.”

3 A West Hollywood gay couple who competed on The Amazing Race 7, they have gone on to market themselves as stereotypical "gossip queens,” and, like Perez Hilton, have been regular guests, and targets of ridicule, on the Carolla show.

4 A former third-tier cable television presenter and writer affiliated with Carolla mentor Jimmy Kimmel who was recently fired from an on-air role on the inconsequential whitewashed syndicated television version of the corporate porn-pushing website TMZ.com, Teresa Strasser cultivated a “smartypants” image when she joined the show as newsreader, but gradually emerged with a pre-liberation self-pitying, luckless “single girl” persona, whose recent engagement serves to continue the character arc that will surely end in disappointment. Allows Carolla and his jock sidekicks to refer to her “V” and to refer to her as a “Jewish news girl.” Now that Bonaduce is gone from the show, she serves to encourage Carolla’s droning monologues by parroting the end of his sentences. Warning to Carolla: refers to herself as “news girl and co-host” on her MySpace page (where her picture shows off an "engagement" ring-- apparently from a pre-engagment photo session). Tabloidbaby.com, January 8, 2008, “While Carolla gets a third chance to make his radio show work, his ‘news girl’ could use a new photo”; October 5, 2007, “Exclusive! TMZ-Carolla-girl Teresa Strasser nude!”

5 The radio team that follows Carolla’s show in Los Angeles is distinguished by regular injections of forced, fake, mirthless laughter throughout their conversations. Tabloid Baby, December 12, 2006, “Carolla Forced to partner with Danny Bonaduce!”

6 Carolla has regularly humiliated a Nicaraguan construction worker named Ozzy, laughing hysterically and mockingly as he has the man read movie reviews and song lyrics in his thick accent. Carolla excuses the racism by pointing out that he gives Ozzy work and that he is a “close friend.” See Tabloidbaby.com, Adam Carolla search.

7 An old Comedy Central series originally hosted by Carolla and mentor Kimmel, celebrating loutish, racist, sexist males also known as “couch potatoes.”

TMZ'd! Teresa Strasser lies about us on the radio

Teresa Strasser, if we made you cry, we apologize!

But come on. Did we really make you cry? Really? From a listen to the evidence, it seems more likely you made up the story to carry out a hit on behalf of your bosses!

And the hit was on us, a puny-- though qualified-- voice in cyberspace.

We got word yesterday that Teresa, who does double duty at the execrable Adam Carolla radio show and the syndicated TV series based on the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com, talked about us on the radio. And thanks to fans at the Adam Carolla message board, we were able to hear what she said about us.

Teresa, Teresa, Teresa… The poor gal, who for months has been a sexual punching bag for Carolla and crew, whose radio persona is based on whining about her unlucky-at-love status, and who is now aligned with a heartless tabloid series, actually claimed that one of our reports made her cry.

Teresa didn’t mention us by name, but gave enough hints that within minutes, our Tabloid Baby items were already posted on Carolla message boards and fan sites. And though she sounded to be speaking extemporaneously during the segment, anaysis shows that it's more likely she was referring to, and reading from notes (whenever she was interrupted mid-sentence by Carolla, she returned to the same point, verbatim)-- notes that were inaccurate.

To be blunt, she lied. In fact, Teresa’s complaint, which forms the basis of a 23 minute and 25 second Carolla show segment, appears to be the first diversionary counterattack from TMZ in wake of the every serious questions raised in our recent reports about the site.

You can hear the Carolla radio segment here, under the “Too Hot for Radio” link.

Our transcript follows, with footnotes:

ADAM CAROLLA: Teresa was a little dejected this morning due to an Internet blogger making nasty comments about her this week, but we all know she's the hottest thing in radio and now that she's on TMZ, the hottest on TV for that matter.

TERESA STRASSER: Maybe I had to put in a little extra effort because I had a rough day yesterday. I was just telling Brian, there’s this, um, media blogger, for some reason he just hates me (1), and um he never writes about the contents of anything I do or my writing, he just writes about how ugly I am (2)?

(Recorded gag effect: “What is it with this Jew?”)

AC: This is a media blogger. What is a “media blogger,” exactly?

TS: This guy has a site. I don’t want to say the name of it. (3)

AC: All right.

TS: But he writes about media. He covers— that’s his beat. He writes about our show here, the Adam Carolla Show, and he writes about TMZ. (4)

AC: Does he cover it from his mom’s basement—

TS: “Heee-- Yes--

AC: Or is it a real gig?

TS: Yes. He’s written a book in the past and I think he used to work on Hard Copy. But he can’t work in television any more. (5)

(Recorded gag soundbite: “I’m explosive!”)

TS (cont’d): And he, uh, I never look at those things, cause as you know I can’t handle it? But yesterday I was at TMZ and I was like, ‘Aaah, I’m kinda bored, let me just—let me just google myself’ and I got about eight pages in and there was nothing but great-- people just writing the most kindhearted things, (6) and I just kept looking until I got to the thing—and this guy was so cruel, and it was just basically about how I’m hideous, and uh, and he said that I’m gonna be replaced on TMZ because, um I’m like Rachel Dratch on 30 Rock and I’m too ugly for television and they’re gonna have to replace me with Jane Krakowski. And he was like that bent nosed, pancake makeup-- uhh!!

AC: …Rachel Dratch, too ugly to do comedy?

TS: That’s what he said. (7) And by the way, I mean--

AC: That’s like being too ugly to detail cars…

TS: Well I got really, you know, in my mind-- had a conversation with this guy in my mind for about four hours, where I thought like, what do you want me to be a Barbie doll? I do the news and um, you know he’s-- I don’t think he’s ever googled me or has any idea that I, um, you know, have had a career in journalism. (8) I’m not trying to be a Maxim model.

AC: Yeah, I—I—I-- I totally concur…

TS: Oh, it said one of the reasons I was ugly was because you are wearing me out. It said "after months of Adam Carolla, she’s worse for wear." (9)

At this point, co-host Danny Bonaduce goes into a funny riff on comments on the TMZ website about his own appearance.

TS: I-- I try. I try to put – I, I try to put it out of my mind because I thought this is just one guy and I’ve, I’ve been really lucky I’ve had nothing but mostly nice things written about me. But I woke up this morning and the first thing, about three seconds into consciousness, I just thought. “I’m so ugly, I’m too ugly for television.” I started crying. I had to wake up Batman. I’m like, “Batman, am I ugly?! Do I look like Rachel Dratch? I’m too ugly!”

AC: Well, okay, cup-- couple of things.

TC: I can’t move on and I can’t let go.

AC: I understand…

TS: Can’t let go.

AC: People-- People are, people are cruel. People are cruel. Um--

TS: Ouch! Ouch!

AC: Now the Internet has become what used to be the car window at sixty miles an hour…

TS: Yeah, like, “Hey, fat ass!”

At this point, Carolla launches into a braying, droning three minute and 32 second “rant” about the Internet, automobiles, Suge Knight, writing emails and the appearance of TV commentators and comedians, before taking a phone call from a listener who tells Teresa, “You’re much too pretty for radio” and suggests that the media blogger must “be on crack.”

AC: First thing I hate is the inaccuracy…

Carolla now launches into a braying, droning one minute and 22 second rant about reviews of The Man Show before Bonaduce gets a word in edgewise.

"To be honest, I got this job
basically because you, Adam,
flipped a coin between me
and some girl with better boobs.”

TS: Well, it was weird, when I first started working here at the Adam Carolla Show, this same site wrote a very lengthy piece, all of which was inaccurate, And I was shocked that he never fact checked-- it wasn’t mean to me so it didn’t hurt but he wrote, his thesis was-- and he, and he wrote it as fact, he said “CBS radio got together and all the suits got together’ and I think the headline was “Girl saves drowning show.” And it said they needed a liberal to save the show (10)and it was this whole cra—I’m-- first of all—I, I’m not that liberal, I’m fiscally conservative, I’m, I don’t believe in affirmative action, I don’t support a lot of welfare programs-- I’m not that liberal! And secondly—

DB: Not a huge fan of comedy—

TS: And secondly, there was, there was a hu—there was never a huge meeting with any suits in New York, I never met anyone in New York and to be honest I got this job basically because you Adam flipped a coin between me and some girl with better boobs.

AC: Mmmmmmm…

TS: I mean was there ever a powwow about hiring a liberal?

AC: Hahahaha…

TS: And this was completely, completely fabricated.(11)

AC: Yeah, yeah. That’s how it works.

At this point, Bonaduce speaks about Carolla’s cult of admiring fans.

Carolla launches into a braying, droning one minute and 26 second about laughing at his own farts and other people’s farts before Bonaduce gets another word in.

The segment ends with Carolla and Bonaduce assuring Teresa Strasser that she isn’t ugly. Carolla goes into a braying, droning two minute and 13 second rant about the “cut off point” of ugliness.

FOOTNOTES:

(1) We don’t hate Teresa. We, in fact, have watched out for her and called attention to the disrespect shown her on the Carolla show. And Tabloid Baby is not a "media blogger." We're a news team comprised of experienced, respected news and tabloid pros who share our knowledge and wisdom for free.

(2) That is demonstrably untrue. We have written about Teresa’s credentials and work from the beginning.

(3) Next time, say the name. Tabloid. Baby. Dot. Com. At least John & Ken were honest enough to do that.

(4) True.

(5) False. The journalists and producers who are part of the Tabloid Baby team, from its editor to its contributing reporters in far-reaching parts of the globe, are all influential and employed. As a currently-employed TV talent, Teresa should know better than to spread that kind of factoid.

(6) The first unkind mention of “Teresa Strasser” actually comes on the sixth page of Google search, not from Tabloid Baby, but in an item entitled “Someone is doing Teresa Strasser doggie style.”

(7) We never said that Rachel Dratch is too ugly to be on television. We merely reported that she was replaced on NBC's 30 Rock for that reason.

(8) Our first story on Teresa did in fact infer that we had “googled” her: “A check of the net shows Strasser to be a part of the Carolla-Jimmy Kimmel ‘family’ already-- an actress and TV host who worked as a writer on Win Ben Stein’s Money, the game show that featured Kimmel in a supporting role. She’s got a website that shows her to feel pretty good about herself, but that’s bound to change as Carolla will systematically grind her into powder on the air, trampling on any jokes she might throw out, and trumping her witty asides with his long-winded, monotonous stream-of-consciousness ‘comedy’ monologues.” In fact, most all of our mentions of Teresa cite her past, and as a result, bemoan her future.

(9) Actual line: "A dour Teresa Strasser, looking the worse for wear after months of battering by the execrable Adam Carolla on morning radio, literally got about three seconds of airtime near the end.”

(10) Inaccurate. False and strangely wrong. Our item, “Radio After Stern: Drowning Carolla grabs a woman” made no mention of CBS, CBS suits in New York or Teresa’s political leanings. It mentions Carolla’s (hanging up on) Ann Coulter stunt as a potential way to boost his own liberal credentials. But Teresa’s politics have not been mentioned on the site, ever.

(11) There was never a mention of powwows, executives, or “hiring a liberal” in the post. It appears some other suits led you into a trap, Teresa. Whose copy were you reading there?