“Garage Logic” is signing off for the last time next month.
It was not mutual – Soucheray’s salary while KSTP’s have spiraled has to have been a pig in a python for the once-wealthy station – but it sounds amicable enough anyway:
It’s highly unusual for a broadcast personality to be fired, but given another month on the air. The move allows Soucheray and his staff one final opportunity to cover the Minnesota State Fair.
“It’s a sign that the station has had great respect for the show and it’s more than generous they’re allowing us to end it this way,” Soucheray said. “The usual way it happens is you are told ‘Your last show was yesterday.’ They’ve told us we can handle this any way we want.
I haven’t listened to Garage Logic in probably 10 years – the endless inside jokes grated on me. But I always liked Soucheray and his on-air persona, and the fact that a show like that could become a local institution. Having run the board for Soucheray a few times back in the eighties, I always thought he was a stand-up guy, especially given the rampaging egos and dubious social skills of many in the broadcast industry.
I figured “GL” was doomed eight years ago when KSTP-AM went sports. I guess I was right, eventually…
Pretty much ditto to everything written. I never quite understood the longevity of Rookie, but what the-, loyalty to people is also part of being a stand-up guy.
I really don’t think KSTP is going to replace a loyal and now, understandably annoyed GL audience with the same number and loyalty of guys listening to sports-talk all day. Even KFAN knows not to talk sports all day.
I had the same thoughts. I used to love that show but the last few years have been annoying with the inside jokes, the constant yukking, and extra people on the show. The news guy can’t get through one sentence without being interrupted by someone making a lame joke or just laughing.
I was a regular listener to the Monday Night Sports Talk show, before there really was any “sports talk” programming in the Twin Cities. I especially loved the shows with Green and Harrington doing impressions of local and national celebs (Ronald Reagan in a debate with Walter Mondale, saying that Israel played in the tough Middle Eastern Conference, playing against the PLO and it’s ‘run and shoot’ offense). Joe and Pat had great chemistry. I caught the GL show from time to time but it’s not really in my “drive time”. My sister-in-law is the official GL Quilter, though, so I’ll probably tune in to a couple of the Fair shows. I think it’s great that he’s getting this Farewell Tour.
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I miss “Bob’s Radio Basics”.
Although he is the epitome of a leftist reprobate elite, Bob Yates kept his reprehensible political beliefs out of his show, and the dude knew his way around the English language.
I bring Bob into the discussion because my breaking point with GL came with the addition of Yates former producer, Kenny Olson. What Bob is to word smiths, Kenny is to insufferable dooshbags.
I also got tired of listening to Sooch squirt tears about how fucked up Democrats are. He is right, of course, but enough already, dude; move.
That said, Soucheray had a damn good run.
And remember Tori Ryder? WTF were they thinking?
I think I remember her saying she came from Berkeley….huh; come to think of it, given the turn MN has taken maybe they aught to give her another shot.
Swiftee, KSTP as an organization has always been ready to experiment. Badly.
Remember when they made Mr Milquetoast, Dave Dahl, a perm?
I still listen to AM 1500 for Pat and Joe on occasion. My work schedule doesn’t allow much daytime listening. I will miss Pat the most, his small town stories, his drinking day stories, and his not afraid to step on some toes sports stories are just terrific. The pre-set for AM 1500 will be gone once they leave. I can’t listen to people talk about the NFL draft every week of the year.
Lets face it folks, they are 70 years old and both work two jobs. At some point this was going to end. They had a great run in a business where most people are “ex-radio” people. Most people don’t last 3.5 years, they lasted 35 years.
Sooch left a lexicon that many of us will use forever. The Cylinder Index, the 48 hour rule, the female fun limitation factor, and the list go on. Cities like Garage Logic, Diversityville, Liberal Lakes, and Kitchen Table Town, will still be there. The man’s palace will still be the garage.
I started listening to AM 1500 in the mid 80’s because local radio wouldn’t play the music I was now listening to. Now I will stop listening because it doesn’t have the talk I want to hear.
And remember Tori Ryder? WTF were they thinking?
I think I remember her saying she came from Berkeley….huh; come to think of it, given the turn MN has taken maybe they aught to give her another shot.
I remember when Jason Lewis started. He and Turi had some epic battles, and I was frankly surprised A) she would stick around after her show to engage him, and 2) he would allow her on his show. Now I realize that that engagement helped drive ratings and that’s what it was all about.
Sooch left a lexicon that many of us will use forever. The Cylinder Index, the 48 hour rule, the female fun limitation factor, and the list go on. Cities like Garage Logic, Diversityville, Liberal Lakes, and Kitchen Table Town, will still be there. The man’s palace will still be the garage.
Uhhh…..we don’t….KNOW…that.
The two moments I remember most from that show, are
#1: “The Crepitation Tournament” featuring the challenger, Paul Boomer, taking on the reigning champion, Lord Windismere. (It’s on youtube and google…go listen, it’s 15 minutes well spent).
#2: When Pat Anderson was mayor of Eagan or wherever it was, and she had her own mini-scandal of demanding that the muni pool allow her kids to swim for free because she was the mayor, some guy called in and very dryly stated “Joe, I don’t see what the problem is. She was just dropping the kids off at the pool”.
It took Joe about 5-10 seconds to realize what the guy said, and then he immediately burst into his trademark Canadian goose-style honking laughter, and and the show ground to a halt for about 5 minutes until he recovered.
Oh, and jdm, in defense of Dave Dahl:
I used to work at a weather graphics computer company, and their systems were (maybe still are, but that was 18 years ago, so who knows) installed at KSTP and KARE. They had done work with WCCO but CCO was not a current customer when I worked there. This was when Ken Barlowe, Dahl, and Mike Fairbourne where the big 3 in town. There were many people on staff who were weather geeks (go figure). One thing I’ll always remember is that most of them agreed, Dave Dahl was the best weatherman, because he was primarily a meteorologist who was trained in broadcasting, while the other two were primarily broadcasters trained in meteorology.
There is also this: http://www.thepatriotride.org/all-day-events/ (scroll down about halfway)
Actually, Bill C, I agree completely. To his credit. More emphatically, while DD was a complete candy-ass in most everything when Sooch would push or tease him, when the topic was weather, he was/is Mr Science.
But that perm… I tried for a few minutes to find a picture and while it’s easy enough to find some other embarrassing pictures, that perm one must’ve been hunted down to extinction.
I now remember that perm!
Talk about bad decisions….