# Extra-terrestrial Radio **Source:** BlahCade Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2017-12-06 **Duration:** 46m 54s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blahcade-pinball-podcast/episodes/Extra-terrestrial-Radio-e1bkfsk --- ## Analysis Chris and Jared discuss terrestrial radio decline, with emphasis on Ralph Garman's firing from KROQ after 18 years; they pivot to pinball tournament updates, Star Wars and Ghostbusters Premium impressions, and Attack from Mars remake with new high-definition DMD technology at a Brisbane venue. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Ralph Garman was fired from KROQ's morning show after 18 years as a key writer and voice actor — _Chris describes Garman being let go by iHeartMedia after CBS sold the station, characterizing him as essential to the show's comedy._ - [HIGH] iHeartMedia fired Garman for cost-cutting reasons without understanding his creative role — _Chris states iHeartMedia 'looked at the books and said, this person costs too much' and notes the company 'clearly they've never listened to this show' given Garman's writer and voice role._ - [HIGH] Attack from Mars remake features a new wider DMD display with high-definition redone animations — _Jared describes the remake having 'a new DMD that's, like, really big' and 'widescreen version' with 'high definition' dot matrix animations that make ColorDMD version 'look amateurish in comparison.'_ - [HIGH] Brisbane Pinball Club tournament had 70 participants, the largest turnout ever — _Jared states 'We had about 70 people turn up for the tournament. Wow. Which is huge. It's the biggest turnout that we've actually had ever for the Brisbane Pinball Club.'_ - [HIGH] Jared missed top-8 playoff opportunity due to score screen not refreshing after Creature from the Black Lagoon was removed from tournament — _Jared checked standings at 18th place before leaving, but after Creature was removed and scores validated, he ended up tied for 8th. Organizer explained 'your screen mustn't have refreshed.'_ - [HIGH] Ghostbusters Premium is substantially different from Pro version, making Pro 'invalid basically' — _Jared: 'the addition of all the extra cool stuff on that game, just like the Pro is invalid basically. I don't even know why they bothered releasing in that form.'_ - [MEDIUM] Star Wars Premium with Hyperloop features unintuitive multiplier mechanics that require understanding to enjoy — _Jared initially disliked the game but 'understood it' after solo play, noting the strategy involves 'shoot all the green shots which are your multiplier increasing targets' and then 'shoot anything else that's flashing.'_ ### Notable Quotes > "I don't even know why they bothered releasing in that form. Like it's just terrible." > — **Jared**, mid-episode > _Strong criticism of Ghostbusters Pro tier; signals major quality gap between Pro and Premium versions._ > "Oops! Just fired their head writer. Great job!" > — **Chris**, terrestrial radio segment > _Commentary on iHeartMedia's decision to fire Ralph Garman without understanding his creative contribution._ > "Cannot unsee it. It's just one of those things, like I said, you know, it's I cannot, I can't not see Julie Roberts' forehead vein anymore." > — **Jared**, early episode > _Humorous description of how visual flaws become permanently noticed once pointed out; meta-commentary on previous episode's complaints._ > "It's exactly that. The Hyperloop is basically the accelerator magnet group is enclosed in this really ugly assembly at the back of the playfield... this looks like, oh yeah, this mechanism is being covered up by a bit of plastic because it's ugly." > — **Jared**, Star Wars discussion > _Criticism of Star Wars Hyperloop aesthetic design as attempting to hide an ugly mechanism; comparison to Getaway's Supercharge._ > "Terrestrial radio just sucks. Yeah, it really does. Amazing how mean they can be." > — **Chris and Jared**, closing segment > _Shared sentiment on radio industry decline and corporate treatment of talent._ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Ralph Garman | person | Radio personality fired from KROQ morning show after 18 years; writer and voice actor for Kevin and Bean show; partner on Kevin Smith's Hollywood Babylon podcast. | | KROQ | organization | Los Angeles alternative radio station owned by iHeartMedia; historically influential on alternative music; employs Ralph Garman and Kevin and Bean morning show. | | iHeartMedia | company | Radio conglomerate that purchased KROQ from CBS; made cost-cutting decision to fire Ralph Garman. | | Kevin Smith | person | Filmmaker and podcaster; hosts Hollywood Babylon live show with Ralph Garman; mentioned as example of successful KROQ talent. | | Kevin and Bean | person | KROQ morning show hosts; depend on Ralph Garman for character voices and comedy writing. | | Attack from Mars | game | Classic Williams pinball machine; remake version features new high-definition DMD display with enhanced animations at Pincadia venue in Brisbane. | | Ghostbusters | game | Stern Pinball machine; Pincadia upgraded their Ghostbusters Pro to Premium; Premium version contains substantially more content than Pro. | | Star Wars Premium | game | Stern Pinball game with Hyperloop feature at Netherworld tournament venue; features multiplier mechanics and multiball awards; Jared scored 1.43 billion after understanding mechanics. | | Creature from the Black Lagoon | game | Pinball machine at Netherworld tournament; experienced flipper issues causing removal from competition; Jared typically scores poorly on this game. | | Chris Frebus | person | Host of Blockade Pinball Podcast; also known as 'Shut Your Trap'; based in US (California area); participates in Orange County Pinball League. | | Jared Morgan | person | Co-host of Blockade Pinball Podcast; based in Australia; participates in Brisbane Pinball Club tournaments and Netherworld venue play. | | Brisbane Pinball Club | organization | Australian pinball tournament organization; hosted 70-person tournament (record attendance) featuring Creature from the Black Lagoon flipper failure. | | Netherworld | organization | Brisbane pinball venue hosting tournaments; features Ghostbusters Premium, Star Wars Premium, and other machines. | | Pincadia | organization | New pinball venue in Brisbane city; features Attack from Mars remake with new DMD; hosting tournament split with Netherworld. | | ColorDMD | product | Aftermarket color DMD upgrade system; Attack from Mars remake's new high-definition DMD makes ColorDMD version appear 'amateurish in comparison.' | | Head to Head Pinball Podcast | organization | Australian pinball podcast; source of Jared's information about Attack from Mars remake DMD specifications. | | Blockade Podcast | organization | Weekly tournament for Zen pinball digital tables; current week features Rome with 23 participants; hosts plan to feature Star Wars tables next week. | ### Topics - **Primary:** Terrestrial radio industry decline and corporate consolidation, Ralph Garman firing from KROQ, Pinball tournament results and competition, Star Wars and Ghostbusters Premium pinball game impressions - **Secondary:** Attack from Mars remake with new DMD technology, Brisbane pinball venue updates (Pincadia, Netherworld), Zen digital pinball weekly tournament (Blockade) - **Mentioned:** Technical troubleshooting (internet/phone issues) ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.35) — Significant negative sentiment around terrestrial radio industry practices and Ralph Garman's firing; mixed pinball sentiment with disappointment over missed tournament opportunity but enthusiasm for new venue additions and game mechanics once understood. Technical frustrations discussed but treated humorously. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** iHeartMedia cost-cutting acquisition of KROQ; firing of long-tenured talent without apparent understanding of creative value. (confidence: high) — Chris states iHeartMedia 'looked at the books and said, this person costs too much. Boom! Fired!' and notes 'clearly they've never listened to this show, because this is the guy responsible for writing all of the comedy.' - **[event_signal]** Brisbane Pinball Club achieved record tournament attendance of 70 participants; indicates growing community engagement. (confidence: high) — Jared states 'We had about 70 people turn up for the tournament. Wow. Which is huge. It's the biggest turnout that we've actually had ever for the Brisbane Pinball Club.' - **[design_philosophy]** Star Wars Premium Hyperloop feature aesthetically criticized as ugly mechanism poorly disguised with plastic shield. (confidence: medium) — Jared compares Hyperloop unfavorably to Getaway's Supercharge, stating 'this mechanism is being covered up by a bit of plastic because it's ugly and we don't want you to see it.' - **[personnel_signal]** Ralph Garman fired from KROQ after 18 years following iHeartMedia acquisition; represents loss of key creative talent in radio. (confidence: high) — Chris describes Garman being terminated and notes he was '18 years in this capacity' as writer, voice actor, and comedy generator for morning show. - **[product_strategy]** Ghostbusters Premium tier contains substantially more features/content than Pro version; Pro perceived as inadequate entry product. (confidence: high) — Jared: 'the addition of all the extra cool stuff on that game, just like the Pro is invalid basically. I don't even know why they bothered releasing in that form. Like it's just terrible.' - **[sentiment_shift]** Initial negative impression of Star Wars Premium gameplay transformed to positive after solo play and understanding multiplier mechanics. (confidence: medium) — Jared initially: 'this is crap...it just didn't feel good. It wasn't flowing.' After solo play: 'I kind of understood it and I had a really good game. Got like about 1.43 billion.' - **[technology_signal]** Attack from Mars remake features new high-definition DMD with expanded resolution compared to standard pinball displays. (confidence: high) — Jared describes 'a new DMD that's, like, really big' with 'widescreen version' and animations 'redone...for the game' that are 'high definition basically' and 'pretty cool.' - **[venue_signal]** New pinball venue (Pincadia) opened in Brisbane with Attack from Mars remake and tournament hosting capacity. (confidence: high) — Jared mentions 'a new pinball venue in town called Pincadia' hosting tournaments split with Netherworld and featuring Attack from Mars remake. --- ## Transcript This is the Blockade Podcast with your hosts, Chris and Jared. You are listening to the Blockade Podcast. I am your host, Chris Frebus, aka Shut Your Trap. Joining me as always halfway across the world, Jared Morgan. Hello! Hello! I'm much better connected this week without any sort of food barring because I restarted my modem before starting the session. Much smoother experience. Thank you, NBN. The feature is with NBN, the weekly modem restarts now appear to be a thing. So congratulations to the highest quality network that we have here in Australia now. Great. Well, you know, everybody's stuff is falling apart. So that's just the way it is now. It is. I just need to tell the mouse that's powering our 5-minute to the node service to just run that a little bit faster between these hours Fredville, so he can generate the extra power as needed I always get frustrated it doesn't usually happen on my home Wi-Fi signal but I'll be out and about at somebody else's Wi-Fi and I'll be looking at my phone and it'll just be taking forever to load a page and you're watching the little loading bar and it's just barely creeping and you're like, what is going on? And you exit out and you try reloading and nothing happens. And then I'm like, okay, fine. And so I'll just do a full hard close down of the phone and then restart it. And then everything works brilliantly. And it's just like one of those things where you're just like, what is going on? I guess there's all that background stuff. Background stuff that's been happening for probably like four or five weeks since you restart your phone and it's gone. I can't do it anymore. Because I'm pretty good about closing down all the apps regularly so that I don't have 20 of them running at the same time. Some of it I got to blame on my phone being, what am I now, three, four years old? It's a 5S. I think four years old. A 5S, okay. I think the 5S was the one behind the iPhone SE that they released that sort of had the small form factors in iPhones? Let's see. We would do the 6, the 6S, the 7, the 7S, and now we have the 8. So, yeah, I'm actually five behind. And then the iPhone X because they skipped nine. Yeah, but that's the same time. So I consider those the same generation year at least. Okay. Same iOS and everything. Hard restart is the way of fixing anything in IT, basically. Why do you think whenever you call up the Indian call centers, they say, have you restarted the designs again? Right. Oh, my God. Every single time. Every single time. Have you tried shutting off the computer and waiting 15 seconds? Yes. Yes, that was the first thing I did. And then the next 10 things that they ask you to do, you've also done because this is not your first rodeo. Here's my favorite. because you know they're going to ask those questions. You've already gone through the basic troubleshooting. So they go, have you? I go, here's what I've done. This is what I've done in the past. I go, here's what I've done. I have unplugged, waited 15 seconds, replugged. I've done this kind of hard start. I've done X, Y, and Z. I run through all the basic checkpoints. The person goes, okay, well, let's run through my troubleshooting. Have you restarted? Okay, first, I want you to restart. You're like, didn't I just say these things? But then I realize, oh, I'm sorry. I blasted through their little script. that they have to hit enter on and they can't get to the next section until it's really frustrating. Have you restarted your computer? Yes. Next question. Have you held your tongue in the right position in your mouth when repowering on your laptop or computer? Yes, done that. When it's something like your internet is down and you make the phone call to the people and they go, well, you know, you can always just go to this website. No, I can't. Because my internet is not working. Yeah. I did the exact same thing when I was having problems with my phone. And I was doing everything... It was my landline at the time. I don't have a landline anymore, but it was my landline phone that was the problem. So I was calling it on my cell phone. And they were like, okay, well, we can't do anything unless we talk to you on your landline. I'm like, but that's the problem. It's not functioning. That's right. You don't seem to understand the problem and the reason why I'm calling. Yeah, anyhow. Anyhow. So what has been happening since we last spoke in Pinball Land? Well, in Pinball Land, not a whole lot. I'm sure people have been able to mess around with Spanish Eyes and Wild Card. somebody responded to our podcast thread on Pimple Arcade Fans that the visuals that I was complaining about last week, they hadn't really noticed. But they have now. That's just it. I was like, you have now though, huh? No idea. Triggering intensifies. Cannot unsee it. It's just one of those things, like I said, you know, it's I cannot, I can't not see Julie Roberts' forehead vein anymore, and you can't watch Star Wars and not spot the Stormtrooper bashing his head into the doorjamb. It's just one of those things that once you see it, you'll forever look for it. It's impossible. And so... I feel like I've done my part because the more people I can get complaining about it, the better. Isn't it pretty much like the whole The Ring phenomenon? You have to show some of the video so you don't get killed. So essentially it's the same thing. Yeah, it's totally that. You've got to send it on, otherwise you're going to lose your family. So yes, you need to share the pain. Not the love, the pain. There's that going on. In Zenland, we have our weekly blockade tournament going on, and I would give you scores for this week. We were playing Rome, but unfortunately I didn't time the start of it properly, and it's ending while we're doing our podcast, so if you really want to know how you placed, why don't you head over to Pimble Arcade Fans, the forum there, and search under tournaments, and there you will find a header right at the top about Zen Weekly Blockade Tournament, and you can find out what's going on there. I can safely say right now that I did not come in first. I never held first. And I am firmly planted in third place right now. I made the wise choice of making this a one-ball game. Because Rome, you can kind of go for a very long time on. Right. I don't think I've ever played Rome. I don't know if I can get Rome on Android. Maybe I can. I just haven't purchased it yet. I've heard that it's Rome, Pasha, Biolab and I don't think it's Mars, no it's going to be something else they all came in a pack oh yes I can get those and I think I've been strongly advised not to by certain individuals so don't worry here's the funny thing I would rather play that pack of tables than play the pack that was V12 Alien Invasion or whatever it's called. No, no, no. It was V12, Tesla, Shaman, and Eldorado. That was before Mac. I can't understand that, Shaman. No, no. It's a mess. It's gross. I would much rather play those. The funny thing with Rome is once you figure it out, it's not a very deep table at all. And it's kind of a lot of repetition. Is it a bit like a sort of like a Williams System 11 where you just, you know, do the short little things, then light multiple, then do multiple, then rinse repeat? Kind of. You know, the modes are not... I mean, basically everything is mapped around two ramps, two orbits, and a sinkhole, two sinkholes, and a five-target drop, you know, five-in-a-row drop-target thing. Everything functions around those. And the table looks really cluttered, but once you kind of figure out where all your shots are going to go, it... You might say that the table suddenly expands for you, and it's not so cluttered anymore. The problem is some of the shots are... The window for hitting them is very narrow. Right. And that can be kind of frustrating and stuff. But, yeah, I wound up, the top score when I checked today was 67 million, and then like 61 million, and I was at 41 million. And the low scores were all in the like twos and three millions. So you can kind of tell, those are the people that hadn't quite figured it out. there's like a significant jump between people that figure the table out and people that still haven't figured the table out because once you learn how to start the mode or more importantly how to start multiball that's when you can get your score going if you can't figure out how to start multiball you're going to be it's a grind fest otherwise you're just flipping random stuff and okay anyway pretty much and it has this mean habit of once a mode is started everything else is locked out so the only way to score is to finish the mode which is I find always really annoying it's like come on give me some other scores while we're going here yeah hmm yeah okay well I guess we'll have to wait and see what the final scores are but at least you know you're not a contender this week I'm not a contender I'm in the top five but I'm not a contender we had a lot of people play this time though too there was 23 players and that was before it was up on Zen's board you might say. So yeah, we had quite a few players this time. I think next, this coming week due to the fact that Star Wars Last Jedi is going to be coming out in two weeks, I think we're going to have to play a Star Wars table or two. So I'll dig and figure out which ones we want to bang around with. Good idea. It's not going to be Darth Vader. It's not going to be that god-awful Power to the Force. First Order game. First Order? No, what's the one that was the Emperor versus Luke? Oh yeah, that was hard. With that weird cube thing that you have to shoot and it doesn work Oh my god that thing was just annoying beyond belief Gross That game is gross Leave it alone No it probably be more something of the you know maybe we'll pick Return of the Jedi or something like that, you know, something simplistic. Something that just has nice flow and the cool things that pop up in the middle of the play field that you've got to shoot. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Well, I actually have some tournament news to share. Okay. So we did the latest Netherworld tournament last week. And normally I wouldn't really discuss the tournament because if you want to find out, you just follow me on Twitter and you see the results. But this week was a little bit interesting because I could have actually gotten to the tournament, but I didn't. And the reason being is that, well, let me share this story. So we started playing in the tournament. We had a fairly decent selection of tables, which I won't elaborate on. They're good tables. One of them was Creature from the Black Lagoon, which I'm not a big fan of anyhow. So what happened is during the course of the night, the flippers started to play up on that table. And it was playing up enough that we had to remove it from the competition. So, you know, I'd been playing okay. um I've had some pretty decent scores on a lot of the tables um and but of course being creature from the black lagoon I hate that game and I can never get a decent score on it never it does me in every single time um so my score on that was I think about 30 million which for me on creature from the black lagoon is perfectly respectable um so um I was happy about the score but I knew it wasn't going to contribute anything to my standings in the competition. So when I checked, it was a big turnout for the tournament. I think we had about 70 people turn up for the tournament. Wow. Which is huge. It's the biggest turnout that we've actually had ever for the Brisbane Pinball Club. It was a final one for the year, so everyone was there. And, jeez, I tell you what, it was packed. Anyhow, so this one got pulled out, and at the time, I thought that they'd done the adjustment when I was looking at the standings and I was about 18th which is fair enough because of the score with Creature and I think also there was a bit of lag with people entering the scores I was one of them, I was going around all night entering scores because there were so many people into match play so I thought at 18 there's a pretty good chance that I'm not going to get anywhere near the top 8 with that score so if I asked is Creature taking it out of the tournament now they'd go yeah it's out, it's no longer being done okay well it was about 9.30 at night I went ah yeah I'm done I'm not going to hang around I could hang around and play a bit more free pinball but I thought nah I'm done I'll just go home so I go home and wake up the next morning and they post the results and lo and behold here's my name in the top 8 what? what happened? and I was tired in eighth, a three-way tie. And I was going, what happened here? Like, why am I in the top eight? Like, I was 18th. How did I get from 18 to eight? How did I jump 10 places to get into the top eight? He goes, oh, yeah, we removed Creature from the Black Lagoon and validated the scores. I said, yeah, but I checked that before I left. And he goes, oh, it mustn't have actually, your screen mustn't have refreshed or something when you're looking at the scores. I went, oh, so I could have been in the top eight and played off for the final. I went, well, shit. Because I don't actually get into the final that often. And I was going, well, that's a bit crap, isn't it? So that was disappointing. Yeah. Very disappointing. But, you know, I guess I still got top eight, which was good. I didn't even have to essentially try or do anything to get into the top eight. But it would have been nice for me to actually play on, because I reckon I could have done all right. They had some new additions to the four. They upgraded their Ghostbusters Pro to a premium. And I've got to say, totally different game. Like, the addition of all the extra cool stuff on that game, just like the pro is invalid basically i don't even know why they bothered releasing in that form like it's just terrible um they also had a new star wars there a star wars premium with the hyperloop okay and um and i had a game on that i had to like try and get on the game just playing a three-player game with these two dudes who clearly knew what they were doing and i just couldn't get a feel for it i had a really poor first impression of the game i was this is crap like all it is is just look at the multiplier and you know have to shift the multiplier around to get the big scores and it just didn't feel good it wasn't flowing and i was going no this is crap so anyhow after those two buggered off and i could actually get some one on one time at the table um i kind of understood it and i had a really good game got like about 1.4 3 billion or something on it which with multipliers is perfectly achievable, in fact it's a low score on Star Wars if you can actually play multipliers but I didn't bother changing the multiplier lane or anything like that I just, basically this is my strategy for that game shoot all the green shots which are your multiplier increasing targets and then shoot anything else that's flashing and there you go you get a three three billions and just like just shoot everything eventually you get multi balls so you just keep on shooting your shots and you'll get multi balls randomly award i'm sure you could target them i think it shoots each shot three times and it like led to multiball or something like that and i think you can select characters and stuff at the beginning of the game that alter what multi balls you get and stuff like i couldn't really care honestly like once you actually get into it and you start flipping it it actually flows okay for a game and the hyper loop is fun when you get it. I was just going, oh look, the getaway when I was playing it. Basically, because it's exactly that. The Hyperloop is basically the accelerator magnet group is enclosed in this really ugly assembly at the back of the playfield. It's covered up with this plastic shield, basically, to make it look half decent. It looks really ugly. It doesn't look nearly as attractive as the Supercharge did on the getaway, which actually looked like a thing where this just looks like, oh yeah, this mechanism is being covered up by a bit of plastic because it's ugly and we don't want you to see it. But, you know, overall, fun game to play once you get into it. Just have some one-on-one time with it and you'll be fine. So, yes, unfortunately no luck for me last week, but there is a little side tournament happening on the 12th, which I will be going into. It's not an official Brisbane Pinball Club tournament. It's just a little holiday season tournament that they're running. They're splitting it between the new pinball venue in town called Pincadia and Netherworld. So it's going to be like an on-off sort of tournament each week. You know, I've been very slack, Chris. I still haven't been to Pincadia. And it's right in the city. Like it's sort of just outside the city. So I'm very slack. But I think I found out a reason why I should go to that venue. And the reason is they've got an Attack from Mars remake there. Okay. Yeah. And I don't know if you've heard about the remakes, but they've got one of the interesting things about them is that they've actually got this new DMD in them that's, like, really big. Not as big as the Sega DMDs, not as tall, but wider. So almost like a widescreen version of the DMD that you see in games now. And apparently part of the deal with the Attack from Mars remakes, I found out all this information from the Head to Head Pinball podcast, which is a new Australian podcast all about pinball, because they did a big thing about it recently. So apparently the way they've done the dot matrix animations is they've completely redone them for the game. So they've made them high definition, basically. And they are pretty cool, apparently. So I want to go and play AFM remake and see just what it's like, because I reckon it's going to be cool. It's interesting that they went through that extra effort when ColorDMD has already, you know, done their version of the game. It's interesting. I was thinking that as well. Like, you know, they've already got a version. Why don't they just partner with ColorDMD right now? But the interesting thing is that it makes the color DMD version look amateurish in comparison, which is saying something because the color DMD version is pretty amazing. Well, but if everyone, I mean, are they doing the same dots or it's now smaller resolution dots so they can do, that's why when you're saying high definition, it's... they're using the same animations but they've they've done something to them to make them super crisp so essentially they they would have taken the original like you know the you know in the the color dmd version of attack from mars you'll see that the woman kind of looks like a woman but sort of doesn't really well in the apparently in the attack from mars version it's like the woman actually looks like a woman and it's fully crisp and animated really well and everything. So they probably have more dots to be working with them. Yes. They probably increased the dots by maybe double the amount or maybe triple. Right, which would then allow them to put actual detail. Yes, that's right. Which is going to look pretty cool. So I've got to go and check that out. For all the people standing around, not the person playing. Yeah, because Attack from Mars is not one of the ones you look at the DMD very much, except when it goes up into the pop-up and plays around there. So, yeah, it's going to be fun. Fun to play a brand new, basically, Attack from Mars. So, yeah, very cool. So I got a Facebook notification about some... There's a... Well, it's a video game store near me, next town over, that, and I was unaware of this, but apparently they now have a pinball room. Oh, okay. And by the pictures, it's dark and, you know, it's got cool mood lighting and they've got a bunch of pinball machines in there. And the reason why I was getting a Facebook notification was they just got in the new Guardians of the Galaxy. Oh, okay. I might have to go take a trip down there and check that out. You know what I think we should do? I think we should make a promise to each other that we do a site visit sometime this week if we can so that we have something to talk about next week with real pinball we should do it I will have to go probably do my lunch hour or something I can agree to that yeah because I still not able to tomorrow is another one of the Orange County Pinball League meetings And today I went and hung Christmas lights outside the house, which was all of them out maybe an hour. And the way I'm hanging them is with a pole, so I'm not having to climb ladders or anything, because I can't do that right now with my knee. So you've got a pre-existing set of hooks up in your house that you just load? I've got these cool little clips that hook onto the eaves. They're plastic. You screw into the bottom of a pole, you push them up into the eave, and then you unscrew them off the bottom of the pole, and boom, it's hung. So you don't have to use a ladder at all. Oh, that's so good. It's the best product for Christmas lights I've ever seen. I've used it for years and years and years. It's really wonderful. But after doing that and spending some time outside for an hour, I came inside, and my knee was just completely throbbing when I tried to bend it. And I realized, oh, standing straight up with your knees locked, I need that sit-down time. So I still can't do standing around and playing pinball for four hours. It's just not going to happen. So, yeah, it would be good to actually – I've always been complaining there's no place local to play pinball either. so if there actually is a legitimate place yeah I'm going to need to go check that out so when you say in the next town what does that equate to for people who aren't in the US what sort of drive distance is that oh it's where this location is it's going to be a 10 minute drive oh wow that's great 10 to 15 minute drive that's it that's wicked jeez no excuses at all hop in the car now what are you doing here Yeah, totally. I'd do it. That's great. Hold on while my wife chimes in. What was that about? A place you told me about? Well, it is in Fullerton. What place are you talking about? I might be in trouble. Bro. Well, my wife apparently had pointed this out and said you should go visit. or is this place... And I never went. Oh. She's all, I guess I should have sent you an email. Yeah. Oh, man. Getting things done man style. If it's not documented somewhere, it's not getting done. That's how it is. So here's a question for you. Do you... do you still listen to terrestrial radio um yes in the car um yeah because yeah that's pretty much when we do it yeah it one of those things where it kind of uh you're reminded of why terrestrial radio is dying um so there is a the local station i listen to is uh caroq um they say the world famous because at one time they were actually very influential on the what was cool to play for alternative music uh since then they've been bought and copied all across the country and they no longer have the influence per se uh but i've listened to them since i was I don't know, 12. Correct. Probably 13. And back in the day, it was what I loved about radio was you'd have your DJ and they would play although the music would still be in line with the station, but they would be able to play their own thing. You know what I mean? And so there are certain DJs that I would turn and not want to listen to because I was like, oh, they always pick this style of music that I'm not really fond of for what would be defined of the alternative genre, whereas this other DJ I really, really like. It might be the difference between somebody who was playing a lot of grunge and the next DJ would play more of the electronic-based alternative. And I was always more drawn to the electronic kind of thing. So anyway, but as the years progressed, that obviously the thinking is, well, we don't want people turning off based off of a DJ and we want to get X amount of plays of this song X amount of times and stuff like that. So basically the DJ is nothing more than a babysitter pushing a button and reading the playlist that's been assigned to them, not actually making their own playlist. Well, part of that too, though, is then the morning shows. and we here on this station, we've had a morning show that's been going on for almost 30 years. Wow. Which is frightening to think about. I mean, it's 25 plus years. From this morning show, if you're familiar with who Adam Carolla is, he used to be on them. Jimmy Kimmel, he came from them. Wow, okay. You know, they've actually had a nose for talent and people have gone to great success from being, you know, just bit players on their show. Well, the person they've had on for the past 18 years in this capacity, his name is Ralph Garman. Now, if you are familiar with Kevin Smith, Kevin Smith, the filmmaker, he does multiple podcasts, but one of them that they do is called Hollywood Babylon. And it's a live show that they recorded, usually improvs, and they just dish for an hour and a half on pop culture and what's going on in the entertainment world and stuff like that. And Ralph is his partner on that. but he's also he does this the daily show with uh for kevin and bean and on thursday comes on the radio and is like this is my last day i've been given the boot oh after 18 years and what it was turns out is that it's the radio station used to be owned by a company called cbs they got bought out or sold to another company called encom and ENCOM basically looked at the books and said, this person cost too much. Boom! Fired! Let's give it to them. As new companies want to do, they want to come in and make their imprint. The scary thing is, clearly they've never listened to this show, because this is the guy responsible for writing all of the comedy. Whoops! Just fired their head writer. Great job! Yeah. He also does tons of voices because the two main guys, Kevin and Bean, they don't do any voices at all. They always are the straight man to this guy's characters. So, oops, again. It's like... And everybody's just kind of going, that sounds like the end of their show in general because their ratings are probably going to drop off. But on the other hand, I'm like, yeah, but they also survived the exits of these other two exceedingly talented people. So who knows what happens, but it is just one of those things where, man, right before Christmas... That's rough, man. Just like, boom, hammer drops. See you bye. He would have got a pretty nice handshake, I think. Well, what was interesting was they actually let him on the air for his final day. Usually in radio, once they fire you, you're gone because they're afraid that you're going say something. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Um, and I don't know how it came about that they were allowed to let him do his final bits for the day. Um, the poor guy was in tears every single time he tried to do one, but, uh, it was kind of sucky, but, uh, yeah. So it should be interesting cause I'm, I'm very interested now to hear, uh, cause this weekend he's doing another one of these podcasts with Kevin, uh, at which point I'm sure he'll be able to unleash and just say exactly what went on because on the air all they would say was that I'm moving on you know even though it wasn't his choice that was all he was allowed to say so it should be very interesting to see but it's just guy man terrestrial radio just sucks yeah it really does amazing how mean they can be yeah and we terrestrial radio over here we have probably very similar to how it is in the US but really there's a couple of companies that own most of the radio stations in Australia. And the type of really the big commercial stations, there's one called Triple M, there's another one called B105, and those two are basically owned by the same company, but they cater for a different audience. But they are just basically, I don't know if it's like this on Terrestrial Radio over there, but it's basically a programming loop of music. Like you can come back four hours later. You can come back four hours later. And if you're one song, what song is going to come after it? Pretty much. You go, oh, look, I've heard that song. I've heard this song four hours ago. Oh, look, I've heard that song four hours ago. They might be shuffled. So they basically go every four hours we shuffle the playlist and start anew again. Because obviously they don't expect people to be listening to it all day. They expect people just to be tuning in maybe on their drive and then tuning in on the way home. But clearly, if you're in an office that has it on the station, oh, that is terrible. But there's one station, which is 97.3, which is sort of the other two stations, Triple M and B105, they usually pay a lot of the top 40 hits, basically, and a few 90s and maybe a couple of 80s hits to satisfy the old office workers. But 97.3 is pretty much generational. it'll go being like 80s 90s noughties and today so it's got like a 40 year gamut of music they play and again they do stuff for a little bit from the um the four hour loop but at least sometimes they introduce new songs uh into it and it's really depressing but then you go on to something like triple j now triple j sounds like station that you're talking about alternative station um and it's actually run by the abc the australian broadcasting corporation here which is uh it's a subsidiary of that and um it's basically youth radio um and sort of counterculture radio um and most people who actually enjoy listening to radio will listen to triple j because at least they hear some different music that's not mainstream pop you know and it's it's nice to actually hear that and and a lot of australian content on that show too so a lot of australian artists gets featured and that sort of thing. So I think really the radio shows these days, they're getting overtaken by podcasts because you can go and download any number of really great music podcasts. Like, for example, if you are interested in dance music, you can download Chayenne's podcast. He was a famous dance artist with a lot of big hits in the 90s and he does a radio show that well not not radio show um it a podcast it about an hour it called sunsets and the the amount of new music i discovered through that show is more than i've ever discovered on radio like it's so much better quality um and i'm sure it's the same for you over there like that you have all sorts of different podcast content with great information on it for you yeah i'm not i'm i'm still not a podcast listener uh for the most part. And part of that is just because I don't like having to think about downloading or everything. Usually when I hop in my car, I'm either listening to the radio or I'm listening to my iPod, which is my own podcast if you will. I prefer my own playlists. And in terms of new music, it's really hard for me to glom on to new music these days, just because I'm old. But, you know, K-Rock back in the 80s, they used to be like, you know, and obviously the record industry has completely changed from then versus now. I mean, now albums are not a thing at all. It's all streaming, you know, Pandora style. That's where it gets released and everything. But, no, they would, you know, a song would come out and they'd play it a couple of times and they would go, wait a second. The B-side, remember those folks, B-sides? Yes. they're like, the B-side, we like that better. And they would instead play the B-side. And that's what I'm saying in terms of they'd be influential to other stations because they would be like, screw what you thought was the good song. That's not the single. This is the way better song. And then they'd play that. And that would actually force the artist to actually then release that as a single. Well, and literally that happened with Depeche Mode used to be, I mean, they were a major staple on the station, and they would come in all the time. And they came in one time and they were like, hey, we've got this new song that we're working on. And it was Personal Jesus, but they played it acoustic. And it sounded fantastic acoustic. And K-Rock just ripped that and played that for months until the actual real song came out. And then it was eventually Depeche Mode asked for that copy of the song and put it out on a single. So they basically got the live performance version, and they released that themselves. We actually like this ourselves better, so let's have that. Morrissey, same thing happened with him, where he did a song for them, and everybody really liked it, and they played the crap out of it, and it got released in single form, titled Morrissey Live at KROQ. Wow. So that's why when they say world famous, It actually, at least in terms of Robert Englunds, knew who the heck the station was because a lot of the English artists were the ones getting this treatment. More recently, Foo Fighters had done an acoustic of Everlong that you've probably heard. That was recorded at the station. Wow, okay. So I see that these guys really did play a part in a lot of musicians' careers. Yeah, and then there was a lot of bands who, if you talked to anybody, they were like, oh, they're a one-hit wonder, and I'd be like, what are you talking about? I can name five songs from them that were huge hits. Well, they were huge hits here in LA. They were never played anywhere else. So, yeah, so that's the... Yeah, you missed that. There's Steve Jones who was the... Was he the bass player for Sex Pistols or just a regular guitarist for Sex Pistols? I can't remember. Anyway, he's got a show called Bob Jonesi's Jukebox that used to be on some independent station and they went away, became Musica, Musica, Musica! And he's now on the Classic Rock station. But the funny thing is, during his hour, he's not beholden to play Classic Rock. He just plays whatever the heck he wants to play. Nice. And that's the kind of DJ that I miss. It's that kind of, you know, I'll keep it somewhat for the audience that normally tunes into the station, but you're tuning in for me. I'll throw you some curveballs and open your mind a little bit. I like that. I want to think if there's anything else I've missed this week about stuff. I don't think so. I could go off on a rant about a movie I watched called Hitman's Bodyguard, but I'll just spare everybody that. I think, yeah, if you want to see that, subscribe to Chris's Facebook feed, and you'll see it. You can enjoy it. You can enjoy it there. yeah it's one of those things folks where now and then i just kind of get a little tweaked um over over certain things that i see in movies but uh yeah i'm not going to bother spreading that vile here um suffice to say don't watch the movie so it's um it's the labrokes christmas party tonight um so they'll be happening on a sunday night they're having it so I don't know what that means whether they're expecting people or people calling sick tomorrow they're going to give you the two drink tickets two drink tickets and a meal voucher no that's not really how LabRace works so it'll be probably we're going to this place in the valley which is conveniently where Netherworld is also located so there might be some either pre-pimple action or some post-drunk pimple action being done by me and or maybe not I might just wander home so that'll be interesting so that'll just be a fun night but I could almost do my little Pinkadia visit before if I lived early enough but I think I'd be like out of time it's far enough away that I wouldn't be able to do both and stay there for a long time which I'd probably want to do at Pinkadia I think I'd like to spend a bit of time there. Well, that's going to be our goal then. You go there, I'm going to go to this other place and we'll report back. We'll compare notes. Yeah, totally. Take some pictures, put them up on the Twitters. Putting them up on the Twitters and if you want to see those pics, folks, you know what to do. You need to subscribe to our Twitter feed. The show is at Blockade. Jared is at Jared Morgz. Myself, I am at ShutYourTraps. Why don't you go ahead and check out the website for our show, which is blockadepinball.com. There you can find past releases of all of our episodes, as well as show notes and websites that we happen to mention, if we mention them. Oh, hey, you know what you can also do? You can drop us an email. If there's anything you'd like to discuss with us, comment on notes or suggestions, do so. Blahblahblockade at gmail.com. I'll give you one final thing to think about here. You know how I like the gadgets or the finger puzzle kind of things. Well, for my two nieces' birthday, which was just passed, my wife always likes to, you know, doesn't want to just hand them the money. She wants to make them work for it a little bit. And so this year we bought off of Amazon these puzzle maze boxes. so it's a clear cube that's got a maze on five of the sides basically and you've got to move the ball into the latches oh my god it was so much fun watching them trying to get at it they were at it for a good ten minutes and just the thought of bringing out a hammer just kept on growing and growing and growing it's like one of those worst video game puzzles that you could ever have. Oh, yeah. And so once they got it open, they were just like, I'm never closing that again. And then all of a sudden, the white bulb goes off. They're like, I know who I can give this to. And then it was, I can put some of these keys in here. It's like, oh, man, yes. Torture, torture, torture. So good. Yes. So that was a good bit of fun. Well worth the eight bucks that we spent on Amazon. Oh, that's super value. Yeah, totally. that's cool that's a good present to give you know yeah if you're going to give the person cash anyway at least make them work for it so the cash was the inside so they had to unlock the toy to get the cash what was funny was that my it was my nieces it's my sister her kids anyway so she was giving my son his birthday present what they gave him was a whole bouquet of balloons but he had to pop every single balloon because there was money inside of each oh so really not a good present for someone with a popping balloon phobia no no that would be bad what was fun was he'd pop the balloon and the money you know the pressure from the air and everything the money go flying across the room so good so not only did you get exercise but you got money as well so that's great yeah and then you had to clean oh yeah true hey i've got one more thing to add as well is being that Christmas is the season of giving, if you like the show, how about you consider giving a small donation to us over this Christmas period? You can do that going paypal.me forward slash, I think it's shut your traps, isn't it? Yeah. For donations. Yeah. So go and if you want, if you like the show, if you've enjoyed it during the year, throw us a little Chrissy present and we'll put your kind donation towards things like domain renewals and downloads and stuff like that that we can use to keep the show running. So, yes, thank you for listening throughout the year. And yeah, if you like it, throw us a couple of bucks. We'd really appreciate it. I thought you were going to say if you like the show and want to donate something. Jared still has space for a pinball machine. Well, I did actually tweet out that the other day that, yes, I do have highly sought after, very limited space still available in North Lakes for storage yet to be filled by anyone so places are strictly limited so do indeed contact me at your earliest convenience and we'll sort out the safe places rent free, safe place the inmates are pretty reasonable here so there won't be any problems with that and yes your pinball machine will be safely stored and you can free up some room in your house for Christmas time of course because sometimes it gets a bit full in your house and you need a bit of extra room so offload a couple of machines to me and I'll get the safe for you. There you go. Alright gang we'll be back next week until then. Bye bye. Bye bye. WizardAmusement.com The site to visit for custom pinball shooter modes. Easy to install, totally unique. Mention Blockade Podcast for 10% off your order. WizardAmusement.com Sales, Restoration, Customization Don't forget to leave a review on iTunes or your favourite podcast hosting service that BlackAid is delivered to. We can't improve unless you tell us how. Now stop listening and play some pinball. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 957541e3-0583-4686-b107-56c2bae4fc8d*