Smarmy? Wise-ass? Us?
Back in 1996, you published a letter to the editor I wrote after eight months of living in Knoxville about what a great job I thought you were doing with Metro Pulse.
After seven years of reading the mag, a recurring theme keeps creeping into conversations with family and friends; the fact that Metro Pulse is intolerant of dissenting viewpoints and how the magazine seems to be a shell of the positive-can-do-rally-'round-Knoxville rag that it was in the mid- and late-1990s. Nah, can't be, not Metro Pulse, vanguard of free thought in monochromatic Knoxville!
Through a series of unforeseen events, I found myself first with nothing to do on July 4 and then, at the last minute, in possession of free tickets to see the Eagles concert at Thompson-Boling last night.
I do not wear Polo shirts. I do not own an SUV. I don't remember the Eagles from my adolescent years (I was in kindergarten in the mid-1970s). I am not an Eagles fan. I have never owned one of their albums. I don't listen to classic rock radio.
I'm not going to offer my opinion on what I thought of the concert. I am going to offer my opinion on what I thought of Jesse Fox Mayshark's commentary on the Eagles (Spotlights, July 4) which I did not read until after the concert. It is indicative of the intolerant attitude that Metro Pulse has towards anyone that doesn't have just exactly the same attitudes that you do about the events that shape our city. Even when I agree with you, I think the smarmy, wise-ass attitude you display towards those that don't seriously undermines your credibility, even if it's something seemingly as innocuous as ragging on a '70s arena-rock act.
It permeates everything Metro Pulse publishes these days—the News-Sentinel management must be smirking at this very moment to find that their chief competitor for the eyeballs of the city displays some of the very same attitudes (albeit from a decidedly different viewpoint) as they do.
I really expected more from the Metro Pulse. Then again, maybe I didn't. I do know that what little free time I have is spent preciously—I'd hate to see myself dump my weekly read of Metro Pulse in favor of something more entertaining. Please get your act together and put a little more consideration into what you publish. For all of us.
Scott Robbins
Knoxville
"Left" Not Quite Right
My GM and I just finished your article ("Left of the Dial," July 11). While I agree non-coms need all the publicity and exposure they can get, I feel you didn't give equal notice to the "two small religious stations with non-commercial licenses."
WYLV (Love89)has more listeners than all of the other stations mentioned except possibly WUOT. We are Christian Hit Radio with around a 35,000 to 40,000 average listenership locally. In addition, we stream online with listeners from all over the nation as well with regular emails/requests from Germany, Canada, the Philippines, England and even China. We are supported by individual and corporate underwriting (80/20) but we are operated by Foothills Broadcasting, not Tennessee Media Associates (they operate commercial stations actually). We also have our very own website address at www.love89.org. The other address you listed is for a commercial station with obviously different call letters.
Interestingly enough, Christian music is the only format and genre of the music industry to actually report growth and an increase in sales in both the last two years (reported by R&R, CCM, Billboard Magazine, NAB, and others). We continue to sell out concerts at the Knoxville Coliseum several times each year with some of the biggest names in Christian music.
WOEZ (EZ88) is also operated by Foothills Broadcasting, not the commercial operator you listed. They are creating quite a buzz in Knoxville and surrounding counties just by word of mouth alone—when the marketing takes off we know the station will grow by even larger leaps and bounds—they have quite a unique niche to work from since the jazz station up and went "Wild." They have no website yet but are also located in the Christian Media Center at 1621 E. Magnolia Avenue.
The same GM runs both non-com stations as well as two commercial stations, WRJZ and WMEN.
Wow, the Media Center could make quite a story in itself!
Marisa Lykins
WYLV services & promotions director
Good Insight
I wish to compliment Joe Sullivan on a concise analysis of the contest for governor [July 4, 2002]. This should be required reading for every voter in the State of Tennessee. Unenlightened voters elect unenlightened politicians and pay the price for their ignorance. When will the voters wake up? Disaster still stalks Tennessee!
William E. Karry
Knoxville
Fix the Spending First
Joe Sullivan, in his July 4 editorial ["Jim Henry for Governor"], ridiculed as "perverted" the notion that "Tennessee has a spending problem and not a revenue problem." Does he really think TennCare has a revenue problem? Does anyone this side of Pluto think TDOT has a revenue problem? Are they necessarily mutually exclusive?
We see or hear simplistic pieces in the news media all the time stating that there are just two sides to this—for or against, one or the other, black or white. Such a naive position ignores problems like TennCare, and almost certainly others. TDOT? Nah, just a teensy little TennCare "issue." Yep. Nice weather today, huh? How 'bout them Vols? Ain't gonna shut THEM boys down, I'll' bet! Yuk, yuk!
According to a 2001 TennCare Bureau report in the Nashville Tennessean, the previous year the program covered nearly 40 times as many "uninsurables" as all the other 27 states offering such programs combined. Investigators report that TennCare has by far the highest prescription bill in the nation among states offering such coverage. In 2000, hundreds of state employees, already covered by state insurance, were found on TennCare. A lot of people, including Gary Odom, the Nashville Democrat and chairman of a legislative committee looking into TennCare costs, suspect there are huge numbers of out-of-state and in-state residents on TennCare who are already covered by employer plans. Incredibly, the TennCare Bureau doesn't even have the information to answer such questions. There is a litany of such problems.
This isn't the largest state program, but the TennCare Bureau reports the state's share of the program alone cost $795.5 million in 2001. That's matched by the federal government. Such management incompetence and out-of-control spending over many years for a program of this size is not likely to be a lone fluke. The tiniest suspicion steals upon one, statistic by statistic, year after year, and state comparison after state comparison, that just maybe this state has an itsy-bitsy spending problem.
Well, one doesn't have to be for or against an income tax, not yet, anyway. One can, in good conscience, be for an outside audit and overhaul of a poorly designed and run tax system, and state bureaucracies that are out of control in at least a couple of major programs. One can call state representatives to force the audit, and vote for badly needed changes and the money to properly supervise the programs.
I personally expect Tennessee does need more revenues, but there is at present simply no way to know how much. Until we address the kind of massive spending problems and incompetent management we have seen over a period of years in TennCare and TDOT, being either dead set against or for an income tax to the exclusion of everything else seems to me an irresponsible cop-out from the hard work needed to fix the system.
Robert Loest
Knoxville
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