This is really sad. While I don't profess to know much about the behind-the-scenes intrigue that goes on at DLBN, I DO know that Guity Pleasures- and the G man himself- is not universally admired around here. My reply to that is- Who the hell cares? Grunos show, and his presence in the chats, are one of THE main reasons that I continue to listen, and the reason why I began participating in the chats. Lets face it- there are plenty of shows on DLBN where I can hear Sylvan and Izz. But you never knew where Guilty Pleasures would take you from one week to the next. Every community needs it's fly in the ointment, and Gruno IS DLBNs. The DJ on a prog station that hates prog? How freaking cool is that? He shoots from the hip and says what's on his mind. I love that! His lukewarm opinion of the Neal Morse show was one of the only criticisms of it i came across ANYWHERE, and it caused me to rethink my take on the show a bit- to firm up and crystallize in my mind the reasons why I thought it was so good. The Yellow Matter Custard thing is another perfect example. Everyone was soooo scared that he was going to get Neal or Radiant sent to hell or sued or something just so terrible- simply because he asked where the credits on the CD were. The discussions that followed in the chats and the message boards were some of the most interesting and thought provoking discussions I'd seen in a while. Everyone- including myself- initially felt uncomfortable with the fact that Gruno had even brought it up. Like what's Neal gonna do? Not like us any more? Kick our ass? Take his piano and go home? Gruno put the question out there- in his trademark style- and the world DIDN'T END! In fact, Neal gave us an explanation. Every format needs a foil. I thought the powers that be understood this, but apparently not. One of the things that make Grunos show- and the concurrent chat- so cool is that it gives me an opportunity to see how people who like prog like I do feel about OTHER types of music that I like. I can pretty much guess how most of the listeners to an internet prog station are going to feel about the new Marillion, but hey- what do they think of Alice In Chains? Or Gwar? Or Barry Freakin Manilow? Grunos show gave me a chance to find out. I know that some feel he sometimes goes too far, but I say again- SO WHAT?!?! Anyone whos going to get their panties in a bunch over some off-color humor or a non-prog playlist takes themselves way too seriously anyway, and needs to CHILL! Hey guess what? I LOVE Prog! But guess who my first favorite band was? KISS! And that's OK! Gruno has a unique insight into the music we love, not to mention the fact that he's gotten us some killer candid moments with some good artists. The thing that makes his interviews, if you want to call them that, so bitchen is that he doesn't fawn over his guests like a pencil-necked fan-boy. He just sorta- I don't know- hangs out with them, and sends the results over the internet. I suspect that these interviews provide a much more open and honest snapshot of the artist than I'd hear in any other arena, and I also suspect that the fact that G doesn't seem to drool all over them is the reason why many of these people (NDV, etc.) continue to have him around. I hope you guys re-think this decision. Hell- on G's show two weeks ago he played all of side two of the first Cars album. Who else is gonna do that? Alistair? C'mon- that is just too cool- everyone in the chat was just loving it. Anyway, just my two hundred cents. I think this SUCKS, and I hope someone wises up.
As a fan of Gruno's show, I too, am very disappointed with this. It wouldn't be too unreasonable to ask for an explanation as to why this has happened. Grinch pretty much outlined the reasons why he is good for a place like this. He offers a different view. What's the big deal about that?
Yeah, I think we are owed an explaination also......I didn't like some of the stuff on the show, but it still ROCKED, and so did Gruney. I think this was a BAD DECISION, Shawn(and anyone else involved)....that's how I feel about it. Nobody is going to like everything about a show no matter who's it is. But Gruney has INTEGRITY and doesn't pull any punches......I admire that about him.
I can't really add too much to the excellent posts by Grinch and ORF except to say that a lot of people are going to be very disappointed by this decision. Gruno's show was completely unique and very appealing, even to those who didn't share his taste in music. I love prog, but I love lots of other genres as well, and it was great having a show where ALL types of music were played. If someone had an unusual request, there's a very good chance Gruno would play it. "Guilty Pleasures" was a wonderful way to unwind on a Monday evening, and I am really going to miss it.
Ditto ditto ditto. You know, some people who like Kevin Gilbert don't like the darker stuff like Kaviar either. But u know what? You just can't be all trees and flowers and chirping birds coming out your ass all the time. It's the darker, more edgy stuff that gives KG the depth- the character- the complex flavour of a truly unique artist. And Gruno did the same thing for DLBN. Think about it. It's the one thing that sets DLBN truly APART from all the rest. Don't let it go, dudes......
Just gotta add that Gruno's cancelling seems quite unfair, and I'm extremely disappointed in his removal. I didn't always agree with his viewpoints, but he was always honest with his opinions which I feel is extremely refreshing in this day and age. He will be missed on Monday nights...
Wow this is really a shock for me.... Come on guys, why oh why are you going to cancel one of the most charismatic DJ's of this station... what?... are you going to play it safe? COME ON!, isn't this supposed to be a 'progressive' radio station,? how progressive is to punish a DJ for being himself?... I am a proghead, that's true, but I really enjoyed Gruno's point of views. He is just the balance to us all, the one who can tell us in our face that sometimes a proghead is just a no head when it comes to accepting music in general, that we should open our minds and ears...He is the other side of the story and therefore WE NEED HIM!!. I can't believe his show is being cancelled after all the hard work and effort he has put in to make DBLN a comfortable place... can you say SHAWN-A-TON??... man, this is sad. DON’T WE, THE LISTENERS, HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY TO REVERSE THIS DECISION? DON’T WE HAVE THE RIGHT FOR AN EXPLANATION? DON’T WE GET TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT?? For all it’s worth, Gruno, you have all my love and support!! You ROCK!!! Big time! Jairo.
There has been a lot of discussion about the decision to cancel Guilty Pleasures With Gruno since it was announced. We didn't want to have to go public with all the details, as we didn't want to air our dirty laundry publicly. However, I guess we were a bit naive in thinking that way. So I will attempt to explain as best I can.
First of all, I agree with everything Gruno's supporters said regarding what made his show different and special, and it was for those very reasons we wanted him on The Dividing Line in the first place. Imagine - a show on a Prog station featuring a guy who hates Prog. It had been a hit when he guested on PapaJ's Matinee. Yes, he contributed a lot toward the station's success and for that we are truly grateful. The decision to cancel his show was not made easily, and did not happen overnight.
During his entire tenure we would receive complaints about his abrasive nature from listeners, and even DJ's every now and then. Each time, we decided to take no action because, as was pointed out by some of you, this is one of the things that attracted people to his show...the fact that he was unpredictable and often irreverent. As the station grew came greater responsibilities with respect to the how to maintain the image we wanted to project to the music industry and our listeners. We were no longer the little "private club" on some obscure outpost on the Internet. Eyes were on us, and if we wished to continue to grow and be respected in the industry, we had to make sure there were certain lines we did not cross.
So we created a carefully written code of ethics and asked all of our DJs to familiarize themselves with it and tell us they agreed with everything in it. The response was unanimously in favour of it. It was not designed to censor anyone beyond what is generally considered acceptable for this medium, so it is fairly liberal.
I should also point out that in broadcasting there is a generally accepted distinction between what is said in a recorded work and what is said by an on-air personality. In the recorded work whatever is said is considered to be said "in context" and can often be much stronger than what the on-air personality says.
A few weeks ago we learned that one evening while broadcasting Gruno had sung over top of a song he was playing, and changed the words to mention things like sucking cocks, taking it in the ass, cunts, taking dumps, and gang banging. We received a complaint about this, and we agreed this crossed the line. Most of our listeners are pretty thick skinned, and even if they took offence to some of the things Gruno did, they'd get over it. This is why we hadn't acted on previous complaints. But we don't want to project the image of rank amateurs to potential music industry contacts, and in more recent times we were experiencing increased activity along those lines. We get sent pre-release material from labels and artists on a regular basis, due to the professional manner of the station. I doubt those same artists would like to hear their songs being played with one of the DJ' s singing along with dirty lyrics. So we sent him a message asking him to tone it down. While he didn't like receiving the message, he replied that he would tone it down.
As you know, on December 22nd he decided to get drunk while doing his show. Things deteriorated rapidly toward the end, and he basically did a repeat performance of the previous show. In fact, he took it a few steps farther with a guest of his making a racial slur. Remember, every broadcaster agreed to follow some guidelines on what is all right to broadcast and what is going too far.
We felt like our hands were tied. What else could we do? We feel like we are at a loss right now. We know there is a lot of unhappiness with this decision and we don't know what other solution there is. How can Gruno and the Dividing Line both coexist in an environment that both sides are happy with? We really don't know what else we can do.
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ProgRoots, Sundays @ 7pm Pacific on The Dividing Line
Think harder. All you need on your site is a disclaimer like TV shows and some radio programs put on just before emotionally or politically intense shows. "The DLBN would like it known that the words and thoughts expressed on this show do not necessarily reflect those of the management of this station or it's other staff" Yes, it's THAT simple. The Reason you have most of the 'contacts' to the Prog scene are through Papa J, and even MORE so GRUNO. He WORKS with them ALL THE TIME. What a BOON Gruno and Papa J are for you! Together, they have brought the LARGEST AUDIENCES to your 'humble little station' and make no mistake, even with people who KNOW prog YOUR SITE NAME DOES NOT BRING RECOGNITION 99% of the times I mention it to someone. Ytsejam.com's webmaster John 'Koggie' Kotzian helped Papa J even with some of HIS contacts.....it seems to me, you guys are being a little 'big headed' about all this. A lot of the people you do promotional stuff with are INDEPENDENTS who don't even have distribution set up yet. Even if it IS a 'big' label you are dealing with, how's it going to get back to THOSE folks, who hardly listen to the very music they sell what one DJ on a backwater internet site says or does? Don't try to use that thoroughly STUPID defense. Last night's show on PJ's Matinee, it was a universal WTF? The 'Queer Eye For the Saddam Guy' I KNOW some would find offensive.....I THOUGHT IT WAS HILARIOUS! Most all the people there did also! I have heard Papa say some of those same words, also! Nobody calls HIM on it....this is SO MUCH BULLSHIT.....if it weren't for Grrrl and Papa's shows, I'd be OUT OF HERE, and telling anybody who asked me this site is for folk who don't like freedom of speech and iron fist tactics to control the media.....
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?... man, this is sad. DON’T WE, THE LISTENERS, HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY TO REVERSE THIS DECISION? DON’T WE HAVE THE RIGHT FOR AN EXPLANATION? DON’T WE GET TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT??
