DENVER—Tune in to WTOP radio this morning at 10 a.m. to hear LL run down the local side of the Democratic National Convention on the Politics Program With Mark Plotkin.

Plotkin was kind enough to invite LL on after not being able to personally attend his first Democratic convention since 1968. Here’s the item from LL’s column this week about Plotkin’s sorely missed absence:

Some familiar faces are absent from the D.C. crowd this year. Not among the politicos, mind you—Councilmember Marion Barry, for one, was holding court in the Crowne Plaza lobby bar as LL was typing out this column Monday evening.

Nope, two giants of local media—WTOP’s Mark Plotkin and WRC-TV’s Tom Sherwood—were left to take it all in from home. (Covering the locals has fallen to LL, the Post’s David Nakamura; DCist’s Sommer Mathis; Leon Harris, Gordon Peterson, and Rebecca Cooper from WJLA-TV; and Patrick McGrath from WTTG-TV.)

Both sidelined reporters expressed their disappointment to LL.

Sherwood says he found out he wouldn’t be making the trip only last week, and says the decision was made for “budget reasons.” He hasn’t missed a convention, Democratic or Republican, since 1988, and he attended the ’84 Democratic affair to boot. Asked what he’ll miss most, Sherwood said, “This sounds corny, but showing the local people in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia a part of history.”

Asked about the budget situation, Sherwood’s boss, VP of news Camille Edwards, says, “I don’t really discuss things like that,” though she admitted that budgets are tightening across the local news industry. Channel 4, she says, has plenty of NBC network resources to draw on to cover the local delegation.

Yeah right: LL can’t wait for that Brian Williams one-on-one with Harry Thomas Jr.

Plotkin declined to blame the decision not to send him or any other in-house WTOP reporter to what he calls “the quadrennial highlight of my life” on any budget pressures, saying station owner Bonneville International has “plenty of resources.”

“Conventions have been a part of my life,” he says, having attended every Democratic confab since 1968—that’s 10 of ’em—plus four Republican shindigs to boot. The listeners aren’t going to go without in this age of corporate synergy, he says, with reports coming into the powerhouse news station from reporters who get their paychecks from CNN, CBS, and Politico.

“Maybe the benefit of all this is there’s less Plotkin to listen to,” he says. “Less Plotkin is more!”

If you can’t get enough of LL’s smooth, supple radio voice, just wait till you get a load of his rugged cable-television good looks!

At noon, tune in to the Politics Hour on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU-FM (88.5). Kojo and LL will be talking about the upcoming Democratic National Convention, the upcoming first day of school, and will be quizzing the candidates in the Ward 7 council race: incumbent Yvette Alexander, Villareal Johnson, John Campbell, and Robin Hammond Marlin.

Then, at 4 p.m., LL will be the guest analyst on NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt on NewsChannel 8. LL will be helping to break down the Schwartz-Mara debates, the school-opening countdown, and the summer-jobs debacle.

LL will be serving as a guest analyst today on the D.C. Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi on WAMU-FM (88.5 on your radio dial). Actually, this will be a Kojoless Kojo; The Post’s Marc Fisher will be subbing as host for Kojo today. Tom Sherwood of Channel 4 will also be on.

We’ll be talking teachers contacts in DCPS, the city’s beleaguered child-welfare agency, summer jobs, and a buncha burbs stuff, too.

We’re used to getting haters who write to us, but usually it’s because they hate us. Today we got one from someone who hates Diane Rehm. Well, we like mail, even unsigned anonymous mail, no matter what, so keep ‘em coming. But, in the interest of full disclosure, I met Diane Rehm during a stint as a producer at WAMU and she is a lovely woman with fantastic hair… who happens to suffer from spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological condition affecting her vocal chords. Still, thanks for caring enough to buy a stamp!

As thunderstorms ripped through Prince George’s County last week, WAMU’s David Furst and I stood there in the downpour and talked about the continued crack down on pupusa truck vendors in the area. The trucks that defy the law against street vending continue to rack up $500 tickets; others have moved their trucks to an area around the West Hyattsville Metro station, where sympathetic police apparently don’t get hard-ons by issuing tickets to Salvadoran street vendors.

You can hear the latest on the Prince George’s County embarrassment—as well as recommendations on other street fare to sample in the area—by listening to Metro Connection today at 1 p.m. That’s 88.5 on your FM dial.

LL on the Airwaves: Tune in to The Politics Hour With Kojo Nnamdi today at noon on WAMU-FM (88.5 FM). We’ll be talking elections, blockades, stadiums, and some stuff about the ’burbs, too.

Dan Snyder just announced that, yes, he’s bought WTEM-AM, aka Sportstalk 980. Good golly.

“Ahoy mates! We’re being boarded!” is how Steve Czaban opened his soon-to-be-defunct Sports Reporters show.

UPDATE, 4:46 P.M.: Full press release is after the jump. They spelled Andy Pollin’s name wrong.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jonetta Goes Down the Memory Hole: A minute in to the Politics Hour on WAMU-FM, host Kojo Nnamdi makes no mention whatsoever of the firing of his former co-host, Jonetta Rose Barras. Filling in for her is NewsChannel 8 host Bruce DePuyt, who is currently talking about…team tennis. —Mike DeBonis

Sure, there’s no such thing as bad press in the era of the hit-counter. But damn if it don’t hurt to be mocked on a site as grand as DCRTV.

“DC City Paper is out with its annual ‘best of’ issue. And it confirms that the weekly rag is pretty cluelessly brain dead about local TV and radio,” writes the heroic DCRTV Dave.

Ouchie. DCRTV-D goes on to rail against our failure to cite local personalities such as “Elliot, Geronimo, the Junks, Cerphe, Russ Parr, Chris Core” etc…

No defense here, DCRTV-D, though we have weighed in on your idol and sponsor Chris Core recently. Hope we don’t disappoint you so much next time around, DCRTV-D. And thanks for the hits.

Plotkin Is Back: The health problems that sidelined WTOP’s Mark Plotkin for more than three months have apparently been resolved–the man was back in the chair this morning on the Politics Program in fine old form. Especially fun: Listening to Virginia Del. Brian Moran squirm (yes, he audibly squirmed) while Plotkin asked why he hasn’t endorsed a presidential candidate yet. —Mike DeBonis

Ira Glass is coming May 1 to a movie theater near you. Sort of. He’s actually coming to a theater near you via satellite from a theater near him in New York. But it’s live, people, the scripted pauses, the predictable story arcs, perhaps even the grating delivery of Sarah Vowell—it’ll all be in real time. I’m more of a Radio Lab fan myself, but never say I didn’t do anything for all you TAL junkies out there. For a mere $20, watch His Glassness debut “never-before-seen extraordinary, funny, and true stories from everyday life, show outtakes, and answer audience questions.” In HD. H-fucking-D!!

Tickets went on sale today for the 8 p.m. show at the following locations:

• Ballston Commons 12
  671 Glebe Road
  Arlington

• AMC Hoffman
  206 Swam Fox Road
  Alexandria

• AMC Tyson’s Corner 16
  1961 Chain Bridge Road
  McLean

• Lee Highway Multiplex Cinemas
  8223 Lee Highway
  Merrifield

• Fairfax Towne Center
  12110 West Ox Road

• Snowden Square
  9161 Commerce Center Dr.
  Columbia

V-v-v-v-vuh. (WTOP)

Something’s been missing from WTOP radio’s Politics Program With Mark Plotkin since earlier this year. That would be Mark Plotkin.

Since early January, the hourlong Friday morning show has been helmed by WTOP reporter Mark Segraves.

Plotkin, reached at his Glover Park home, says he hasn’t been feeling like his usual vigorous self lately. “I have some health concerns,” he says, “and I took some time off until I feel better again.”

He declined to elaborate or predict when he might return to his show, except to say, “I hope to come back very soon.” Plotkin has been working with WTOP producers and contributing occasional short analysis segments.

With perhaps the most bruising presidential nomination battle in a generation shaping up the past few months, LL and others have been surprised to find Plotkin, a inveterate political junkie, sitting on the sidelines.

“This is high season,” he says. “This is really an irony of all ironies.”

DC radio fixture Chris Core got canned from WMAL recently.

He used to be part of the AM-630’s’s feel-good duo, Trumbull & Core. But for the last several years, the station has been Hatemonger Central — Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc. — and Core tried like heck to blend.

Every time I heard Core, he was begging listeners to harass lawmakers who didn’t hate immigrants or gays.

He used every watt available, for example, to get the anti-immigrant movement focused on Herndon — he even hosted several on-air hate rallies from the tiny burg — and helped get the mayor thrown out for supporting a day labor center. He lobbied a Herndon councilmember to introduce a measure making English the official language there.

He gave listeners names and phone numbers of Montgomery County board of education members with directions to pester anybody who supported a sex education curriculum that acknowledged the existence of homosexuality. Like every other show at the station, Core’s became as predictable as it was hateful.

Core has now taken out big ads on dcrtv.com, the great local media news/gossip site, saying that he’s “available!” and asking for another radio job. If I owned a station, I would want Core on my staff, knowing he’ll say anything he’s asked to say, and very professionally.

Sorry, Silver Spring. NPR is staying in the District. According to an announcement today, the headquarters is transferring from Mass Ave to North Capitol—111 1111 N. Capitol NE, to be precise. Six-hundred D.C.-based staff will make the move to the BID of “NoMa, North of Massachusetts Avenue, an emerging area that has begun redevelopment into a multi-use area.”

According to NPR, their new digs were built in 1927 for Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone. The historic facade will stay, but a 10-story office tower will go up around it. Move-in date is sometime in 2012. I’ve heard that Mama Stamberg has accumulated A LOT of stuff through the years. Fortunately, she also has her own private interns who can start packin’ her boxes now.

And for Mr. Renaissance: Sharpen that pencil! CEO Ken Stern says, “A major factor in our decision was the opportunity to play a role in the revitalization of NoMa, much as we did 16 years ago as a pioneer in the Penn Quarter renaissance.”