Well, it was only a matter of time.
I thought his show pretty much sucked, but I’m a little surprised it happened so fast.
They are apparently replacing him with … Opie and Anthony.
It’s like replacing diarrhea with plain old shit.
Baby steps!
I think if Roth wants to do radio, he should just do a regular DJ job. You know, spin classic rock, and just do little bits between songs, news & traffic. He’s probably got a million stories about touring, recording, groupies, etc.
In Toronto, classic rocker Kim Mitchell (ex of Max Webster) does afternoon drive on Q-107, and he just has these little “I remember meeting…” stories every once in a while, and doesn’t have to do three solid hours of talk every day. There’s the music, the contests and everything else that regular format radio offers to help carry the show.
Of course, what might happen when DLR is expected to spin a Van Hagar tune, I have no idea.
thwartme
I’m not. I listen to 'BCN now and then when 'BUR gets boring and hooo boy, what a trainwreck disaster. The DLR show was excruciating. I never thought I could pity Diamond Dave, but I think the experience found a big chink in even his megalomaniacal armor, and he sounded in the end like he knew he sucked.
And gawd, did he suck. First with his band of idiots who laughed when he said…well, “the” was a knee-slapper, “and” had them in stitches…I’m pretty sure “hey you” brought down the house. That had to be one of the most gratignly sycophantic collections of misfits and losers ever assembled in one room to suck a guy’s kneecaps. Then he bitches like a raving lunatic about the injustice of losing the aforementioned gang of idiots and being forced to comply to…well, something other than a private DLR dicksuck we’re invited to watch as if we cared. Finally, he admits defeat, wearily staggers through what he knows is going to be the brief remainder of what would be a very public humiliation if more than ten people were listening.
I sure pulling him didn’t even feel like revenge to his bosses. It was a mercy killing.
I guess my point was that the Arbitrons hadn’t even come out yet (not that they wouldn’t tell CBS Radio anything they didn’t already know), and it’s only been three months. I would think that he would have a minimum term worked into his contract or something.
At least if they had waited until the Arbitron ratings had come out they could point to them and say “look, Dave- according to this, you suck” and it would just support their position.
Not that I’m sorry to see him go- he’s a megalomaniac and has nothing of substance to say about anything except his own experiences as the frontman of one of the (at one time) world’s greatest rock bands. Everything else that comes out of his mouth is just noise.
When last I tuned in, about two weeks ago, I think, he sounded like he wanted to get the boot. He’d be reading a news story and say something like “This is so stupid, who cares about this”. Music would play for some uncomfortable period of time, and then he’d come back on and start ranting again about the injustice of it all, slinging an endless litany personal insults at his superiors. Dave’s producer probably feared for his life being stuck in a room with him, he sounded so insane. It was an unmitigated public disaster. I imagine he wasn’t ejected immediately because it took CBS’ lawyers some time to make certain they could toss him into the street without paying another cent.
You’d hear a loud “boom” and then a sloppy, wet, spattery sound, I’d imagine.
Well, DLR isn’t as excruciatingly boring as your average Morning Zoo-style DJ’s but that’s about all you can say for him. But your average Talk-Music mix DJ is about 5 levels too boring for me: I don’t even listen to them when they play a mix of deep, rare, good cuts even when I have a tape recorder available: I just have better things to do with my time than hear a radio head masticate with his sycophants.
Wow. We mst have been listening to two totally different shows. While I only get to listen in my car on the way to work, I found DLR to be very interesting. Some annoying verbal things, but he asked some thoughtful questions and had some unique guests. The only time I turned him off in mid-listen was when he was interviewing some adult film star…that was boring. But I really enjoyed listening to him talk about his life, and some of his philosophies, and just mundane stuff about riding his bike around town, or today’s silliness about horrible cars people have had in the past. He actually seemed to listen to his guests, and while he comes across as a big silly goof sometimes, I was surprised and pleased by some of the comments he made about various topics. And I am not, and have never been, a Van Halen fan. Just thought he was interesting to listen to. I’m going to miss him.
When channel surfing, I found myself listening to DLR a lot more than I listened to Stern. Not exactly high praise, but I considered him a step up.
Oh well, he still has his EMT job, right? 
Has anybody been listening to the Carolla show? What’s it like? I read that he’s tanking too. Not as bad as Roth was but still pretty bad. I liked Adam Carolla on Loveline but it seems like everything else he’s ever done sucks ass. The Man Show blew, that show with the puppets blows, that talk show he had on Comedy Central really REALLY blew (when the highlight of the entire run of your talk show is getting dry-humped by a drunken Steve-O, you know you’ve got problems).
He was funny and engaging on Loveline, though, and now THAT show totally sucks without him (if I have to hear Rob Schneider or Danny Bonnaduci as guest hosts one more time. I’m going to put a foot through my own stereo). Since radio seems to be a better medium for Carolla, I would assume that he hasn’t sucked that badly in replacing Stern. On the other hand, he doesn’t do well as a frontman. He’s much better as the wise-ass in the background. So, since I don’t get the show here in the Twin Cities, I was just wondering if anyone could offer a take on what he’s been like since he took over the morning show.
Hey, O&A are actually funny. Some of the stuff they’ve done since coming to XM has been hilarious.
They’re going to do 6-9 a.m. on FM (and simulcast on XM) from the WFNY studios and then do 9-11 from their XM studio (which will be uncensored.)
If the geniuses behind “Free FM” were smart, they’d hire Ron & Fez too.
I have to agree with Kittenblue, I found him interesting more often than not. However, he did have some “clunker” topics and I’d tune away from that. I was glad he didn’t have the derth of commercials Stern had when he was on. I could always tune away for 10-11 min. when he was on and not miss a thing. Here in Cleveland, they’re not sure what they’re gonna do to replace DLR. O&A will be going back to the station they aired on a few years back, and will be tape-delayed until the afternoon drive shift. WNCX may do a local show, but I haven’t heard yet what will actually replace DLR on their airwaves…
Well, indie 103 in LA gave Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols his own show, and frankly Jonesy’s Jukebox is the best thing on right now.
His interview with Paul Anka in studio was priceless.
I listened to some of Roth’s podcast, and wow, can he ramble. Why say something in 10 words when you can use 40, repeating the concept at least twice? Why not repeat your point 3 times in ten minutes, just in case someone tuned in in the meantime?
When I compare the family feel and experience of Mark and Brian (syndicated in some western markets, from L.A.), or Kevin and Bean, Roth really felt like trying to fill up on potato chips.