Sir Clement Freud, grandson of Sigmund, Liberal Member of Parliament, chef, scribe, and deadpannist extraordinaire, has died at 84, reports the BBC, the Guardian, and everybody else.

To me and to many of my British classmates, Freud was that disembodied, side-splitting monotone that punctuated the best moments of the hit radio show, "Just a Minute." The show's format was simple: four celebrities ("panelists") would take turns trying to speak for 60 seconds on a subject suggested by host Nicholas Parsons; instances of "repetition, hesitation, or deviation" from the subject were penalized when opposing panelists buzzed in. This basic framework allowed for a genial and droll parry-thrust between panelists (I don't know if wit is still in such currency on British radio, not having listened to the Home Service in over a decade), and Freud was the show's guru; in one episode my sixth-form year, he spoke for 90 seconds without interruption from Parsons or anyone else (frequent panelists included Paul Merton, Stephen Fry, Graham Norton, Derek Nimmo, and a host of others nobody in the U.S. cares much about). Sure, it sounds like tying one's shoelaces. Until you try ad-libbing a monologue on the word "critic" without pausing for breath, switching subjects mid-riff, or saying the same word twice.

The show lives on, but Freud does not. Among today's eulogies, check out the BBC's phone interview with Stephen Fry, who recalls Freud's uncanny intelligence, his Soho indiscretions, and the one time he was "outgrandfathered." The Guardian, meanwhile, has compiled an abbreviated greatest hits from "Just a Minute" (clip below). Freud was a man of infinite resource, the rare public intellectual who balanced the roles of media personality, aristocrat, and libertine, all without breaking a sweat or spilling his martini. One imagines him trading barbs with Oscar Wilde somewhere in that great salon in the sky.

Cerrato originally signed on to do the twice-weekly show a few weeks into the season, after the Redskins had beaten Dallas and Philadelphia and everything about the team looked swell.

It was an odd job for a guy in Cerrato's allegedly lofty position to take; his official title is executive vice president-football operations, putting him second in command to Dan Snyder in the team's hiearchy.

But Cerrato was flying so high -- and who could blame him at the time? -- that he used the airwaves to go after his and Snyder's chief antagonist in local media, Washington Post blogger/beat reporter Jason La Canfora.

Longtime Snyder employee and former WRC sportscaster George Michael served as the "Vinny Cerrato Show"'s original co-host, and egged Cerrato on as he took on his enemies.

Well, Michael bailed weeks ago, and all optimism about the team had left the area by the end of yesterday's ho-hummy loss to the Giants.

A typical segment from Cerrato's latest show:

"I'm going to blame the person they say is in charge," railed a caller. "If that's you, you need to step down or hire somebody who knows what they're doing. You don't know what you're doing when it comes to picking players."

Ouchie.

Michael's replacement, Frank Hanrahan, tried to help by talking down all the callers while Cerrato stayed mum. But Hanrahan's troubleshooting efforts just made Cerrato seem weak and afraid to confront the discontent.

For the first time in its history, the "Vinny Cerrato Show" could legitimately be called great radio. And now it's going to take an upset of the Ravens next Sunday night to make the program boring again.

If the Skins lose, Cerrato, for his own sake, shouldn't even show up.

I've let VOA Special English fall out of my regular listening habits for a while, but Comics DC reminds me of reason to tune in again: Yesterday the network aired a lengthy feature on comic books that includes quotes from staffers at Springfield's NOVA Comics and Games. An excerpt from the show should give you an idea of how simple the storytelling is:

Comics use drawings and words to tell stories that can be funny or serious, or a little of both. Comic books grew out of comic strips in newspapers.

One of the most successful early comic characters in America was Mickey Dugan, better known as "the Yellow Kid." He wore a yellow coat that was too big for him.

He was a character in a comic strip in New York called "Hogan’s Alley" by Richard Felton Outcault. It provided social commentary on the problems of cities.

But you really have to listen to the report to get the full effect. True, you may fall asleep on the Metro while listening to it. But that's a small price to pay for utter peace.

This could be fun!

Readers only had to get to the third paragraph of Jason's primer (co-written by Barry Svrluga) in yesterday's Washington Post on all the new Seahawks coming to town before the beat writer let everybody know DJ Vinny is talking to everybody but him.

"Vinny Cerrato, the Redskins' executive vice president for football operations," the story went, "declined to comment on the moves."™ 

This latest, um, flareup in the feud comes after a relative cease-fire period, which followed Vinny going on the air to call Jason unprofessional and devious and Jason calling Vinny a liar in emails to readers. 

So how long can Jason vs. Vinny go on?

Well, by next season, if not sooner, we'll see that this beat ain't big enough for the both of 'em.

Speaking of no-shows: today's sports section has a big advertisement for a Post promotion called "Chalk Talk." The event invites all comers to the paper's 15th St. NW headquarters next Thursday for a two-hour chat with "the Washington Post's football writers and editors" to talk "football, football and more football." 

"If you've wanted to meet the people behind the words, this event is for you," reads the ad copy.

Well, judging from the banter at Post-hater Dan Snyder's Extremskins message board and Post-hater Vinny's radio show and Post-hater Larry Michael's TV show, if there's any media type that fans want to share quality time with, it's Jason.

So why isn't his name among the six Post football writers and editors scheduled to appear at the event?

Must be a scheduling conflict.

But, according to the ad, in lieu of Jason, those who show up will get "Great food!"

Even Vinny, the guy who gave up a third and a fourth rounder for Brandon Lloyd, can spot that as a fair trade.

The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU 88.5 FM talks to our leader today. The segment with Wemple starts at 12:30, but why wait? Tune in at the top of the hour for a discussion about the future of UDC. It's D.C. hell-in-a-handbasket Monday! Let's all tune in!

On my way home from a vacation up north, I flipped on C-Span radio for much of the Jersey Turnpike. The station replays the morning chat shows. Since I am addicted to the presidential race, I just had to listen to George Will and Brit Hume, etc. I'd listen. Then scream. I'd listen. Then Scream. All through Jersey. It was fun.

News had already broke that MSNBC was ditching its fiery brand names (Olbermann and Matthews) because of the view that they might be too liberal. This is an interesting turn of events for the schizophrenic network (tonight is the debut of liberal talker Rachel Maddow's show) Olbermann and Matthews had sparred with each other on the air and Olbermann had taken a jab at Joe Scarborough. Jon Stewart compared the antics to The Lord of the Flies.

What was Olbermann's REAL alleged screwup? Going after the Republicans for using graphic 9/11 footage as a prop during its convention. And going after his own network for airing the video. You can read/watch Olbermann's critique here.

Meanwhile, the chat shows had peppered the McCain campaign about when Sarah Palin would finally sit down for an interview. Yesterday we learned that the McCain campaign awarded the Palin interview to ABC's news anchor Charles Gibson. I'm sure I will watch it. But I can't help but think the obvious thought: Gibson is no Russert.

What does Palin need? What do we need? Russert. It would have been awesome to see Russert post up old, pre-convention Palin stances on earmarks, the "Bridge to Nowhere," Polar Bears, Creationism, and Iraq. Is she really George Bush in lipstick? Russert would not only find out, his findings would stick.

Palin would have to answer all the questions about flip-flops, earmarks and that bridge to nowhere. She would have to prove her readiness. And no Republican would be able to accuse Russert of bias. I doubt Gibson's interview will change many minds or bring about an accurate portrait of Palin. Say what you will about Russert, his interview would have meant something.

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!”

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.

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!

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.

"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.

RED ZEBRA BROADCASTING EXPANDS IN WASHINGTON DC

SILVER SPRING, MD – Red Zebra Broadcasting today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire WTEM (Sportstalk 980), WTNT (570-AM) and WWRC (1260-AM) from Clear Channel Communications, creating an exciting new combination of local and national talk radio programming.

“It has always been our goal to grow our company, expand our Redskins Radio footprint while also venturing into other forms of broadcast entertainment,” said Bruce Gilbert, CEO of Red Zebra Broadcasting. “We are especially thrilled to be adding local sports talk icons John Thompson, Doc Walker, Brian Mitchell, Steve Czaban, Andy Polin and others to our team, which already includes Hall of Famer John Riggins.”

In addition to bringing together some of the best sports talk talent in the marketplace, this acquisition will bring to nine the number of stations in the Red Zebra/Redskins Radio family.

“We’re thrilled to take ownership of these stations so that we can first and foremost deliver to sports fans the best events, breaking news, big name guests, information, and interactive debate. Additionally, we are excited about adding the news and talk programming heard on WTNT and WWRC to our lineup,” Gilbert added.

In the near term, WTEM 980-AM, WWRC 1260-AM, and WTNT 570-AM will maintain their current formats and programming. “During the coming months we’ll evaluate all program lineups to determine the best mix of programming to serve the many diverse fans of sports and news talk. Some things will change, some will remain the same, but our goal will be simple: to bring the best radio to the most listeners,” Gilbert said. “Beyond the Washington Redskins, we look forward to expanding our professional and collegiate play by play offerings for area sports fans.”

Closing of the acquisition is subject to FCC consent and other customary closing conditions. Under a separate agreement Red Zebra will provide programming for the stations beginning July 1.

Red Zebra currently owns and operates three Washington, D.C. area radio stations (WXTR 730-AM, WWXT 92.7-FM, and WWXX 94.3-FM). These stations serve collectively as the flagship for the Redskins Radio Network. Red Zebra also owns the ESPN Radio all-sports station in Richmond, VA, WXGI (950-AM), and the Fox Sports Radio affiliate in Norfolk/Virginia Beach, VA, heard on WXTG (102.1-FM) in Virginia Beach and on WXTG (1490 AM) in Hampton. All of Red Zebra’s owned and operated stations are home to the Washington Redskins. The Company was established in 2006.

Daniel M. Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, and Dwight C. Schar, a minority owner of the team, are primary investors in Red Zebra Broadcasting. Both are members of the parent company’s Board of Directors, but have no operating role in the company.
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