Page 44 – scaredpoet.com

RadioShack is not feeling Cingular’s love

4/28/2006scaredpoet

After facing a corporate scandal and losses from its dropping of Verizon Wireless in favor of new partner Cingular, RadioShack is facing even WORSE financial results than ever before. The apparently-forlorn purveyor of cheaply-made, heavily-marked-up electronics has seen it profits dwindle by as much as 85 percent, and executives aren’t happy:

“While we knew first quarter would be weak, the results are worse than we anticipated,” said acting Chief Executive Claire Babrowski. “We clearly have a lot more work to do to get this company back to levels of profitability which we all expect.”

When are these guys going to admit the Cingualr move was a huge mistake?

Cingular and truth in advertising

4/27/2006scaredpoet

So I’m sure you’ve seen the ads all over the place by now. Cingular has wrapped itself in the flag of “a leading independent wireless research firm” and touts the results of this supposed independent study that rates Cingular as having the fewest dropped calls of any national wireless carrier. They don’t exactly mention who this independent wireless company is or how the test was conducted, but hey details like that are of no importance, right?

Well, several media outlets are calling Cingular out on their marketing campaign and accusing Cingular of stretching the truth a bit. And when the identity of the “leading independent research firm” was discovered, the firm apparently wasn’t too happy:

A Cingular spokeswoman said the research company was Telephia Corp. of San Francisco and referred questions about the study to a spokesman there. The Telephia spokesman declined to provide any information, saying Cingular shouldn’t have even mentioned the company’s name to a reporter.

Nice. So after this company allegedly releases a study that makes the real indepdent research firm scratch their heads in disbelief, it turns out they don’t even want their name associated with the study? How reliable can this thing be if the researchers don’t even want people to know they did the study?

And despite it all there are still no details about what the report actually said, how the tests were conducted, nor can it account for the fact that every other report – the ones Cingular chooses not to flout around in full page newspaper ads – tell a very different story.

The Sprint vs. Verizon EVDO Shootout: Episode One

4/24/2006scaredpoet

Well, I was all psyched up, ready to try Sprint PCS service one more time to see if service had improved. I have even hoped to write up a review/shootout between Sprint’s Power Vision service, and Verizon Wireless’ BroadbandAccess offering, analyzing which was the fastest, best implemented, and best value for the money.

Unfortunately, Sprint appears to have forfeited round one:

Error 67

This, after my experience getting the correct rate plans on my new account.

Nice to see little has changed at Sprint. *sigh*

…and it’s (almost) official

4/20/2006scaredpoet

News sources are abuzz with the rumor that Roth is indeed going to be off the air as soon as next week. The alleged replacement? Opie & Anthony, who had been fired by the same company a few years back.

Way to go, Infinity! Now that’s desperation!

It’s Free, but no one’s buyin’ it

4/13/2006scaredpoet

So there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind now: “Free” radio isn’t even worth its face value. Howard Stern’s move to satellite radio has spelled disaster for his former land-based radio employer, Infinity Broadcasting (and let me just say, it’s a sad situation when getting rid of a pompous old has-been is considered a disaster).

So they decided to replace one has-been with another. David Lee Roth took over Stern’s slot, and Roth quickly learned a very hard lesson: being a blabbering idiot doesn’t go very far when you have four hours of dead air to kill, five days a week. And the show has proven to be yet another total disaster for Infinity… in fact, this clear act of desperation is probably the worst talent and programming mistake they’ve made yet. You know it’s bad when even Roth himself is predicting imminent failure, on his own show:

The once-spandexed lead singer has rarely hit the right notes since his January debut on New York’s WFNY-FM (billed as Free-FM) and six other CBS Radio stations. In a recent broadcast, Roth claimed he was bombarded with four management letters in five days about content and predicted his show could be finished before May.

Is it really possible that someone can suck on the air so badly that all they can talk about on the air is… well, how they suck on the air, so badly?