I know this guy gets all kinds of positive and negative stuff on here.....but....I've about had it with this fool and his stupid show.

I was listening today on the way to Kingsport, and about 4:45 or 4:50, Bill takes about his second coherent caller of the afternoon and its a ETSU pro-football supporter.

This guy goes on about how Mullins and Stanton have their agenda and how they got the removal of football in the first place. He mentions that they also passed the buck on this referendum - to take some of the blame off of themselves.

The caller then mentions figures like how ETSU athletics department runs on a $7 million dollar budget and how the non-revenue sports are lavishly funded and dont bring in a dime. Caller mentions that even basketball is losing money and is expected to be the cash cow now because there will be no football.

Caller mentions attendance figures of ETSU football - which Bill protests without giving anything except saying "There's no way".

Caller made these statements in a rhetorical question kind of way, never really posing Bill these questions, but Bill was too stupid to realize the caller was posing his arguments for football that way for the audience to talk about it.

Caller made a ton of good points and was into making some other points - which Bill was being very defensive and very anti-football like about - and then Bill says "You need to wrap up, I'm up against a break here".

And the caller responds and strikes a nerve with our old Buddy Bill... "Well if it was pro football, you'd have time to talk about it" and Bill flipped....

"I HAVE A FORMAT TO FOLLOW! AND IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT, I HAVE TO DO NEWS AND WEATHER, SO HERE WE GO!"

and immediately cut to the news segment, which was taped.....

And then through the news, weather, and ESPN break....and then Bill comes back, and he is pissed. He says he will let anyone talk about whatever they want and blah blah blah, but to insist he only wants to talk about certain issues on his show isnt a valid point and basically said its the quickest way to make him mad (Well Bill...if you are reading, you love UT Football, Neckcar and Pro football and nothing else exists, unless its an ETSU winning sport). Bill then went on to say if you have these questions they should be asking them to Stanton and Mullins and pretty much not raising them on his show.

Come on, I know Bill is dense, but....he hosts a talk-radio show....meaning that people call in and you know, talk about the issues of the day (Shocker, I know)....

I'm usually even-minded about Bill and his show, because I know Bill is a dufus when it comes to covering anything local except prep sports (Heck, Bill's UT news is about 2 days late and a couple dollars short) and giving honor to his pal King George Pitts, and I know Bill's callers are not the most up-and-up on anything....

But the way he reamed this caller out today, as the caller was making valid points and stuff on a nice, local, prevalent issue that could generate a lot of callers (Besides AntiGamecock) to Bills show and Bill shuts him off, as Bill says anyone who is anyone that calls into a call-in show knows that breaks occur at three minutes before the top of the hour....

Now I understand Billy was up against a break, but...perhaps Bill should take talk show hosting lessons from his Citadel buddies John Wilkerson and Jimmy Hyams from Knoxville. If they have a caller who is giving good stuff and is up on a break, they will invite the caller to stick around. (Side note, I never once heard Bill invite someone related to ETSU football, like Jerry Robertson, Wilsie Bishop, Stanton, Mullins or another task-force member, or anything like that....WNML out of knoxville always does this on big issues, getting mike hamilton, bruce pearl, etc into their studios for interviews on big issues)

Instead Bill berates the guy and drowns out his voice of something local in the talk of mindless neckcar, pro football and other stuff thats really prevalent here in the 2nd week of April in the sports world.

I hope everyone calls Bill and rips him a new one for this outburst today and talks ETSU football off his ear on Friday's show and Monday's show.

If as Pitt says, this is war, let's fill Bill Meade's precious show with the ringing of ETSU sports.

Email Bill too...BillMeade@640wxsm.com....and let him know his little outburst wasnt much appreicated either and that if he wants to host a "talk show" -- be prepared to discuss issues, rather than talk nationally and sweep local sports under the rug.

Pitt always talks about how this is a terrible sports town, well its a terrible media town too. I know of a ton of media outlets locally who would love to have a major college athletic program in their area to cover. Instead, in Johnson City, the media outlets here, want to be covering the orange about 90 minutes down the road..

You will get writers on here who will defend Bill to the death. I called Bill and tried to get him to talk about how poorly the Bucs played after the Vanderbilt game this year. He went on and on about how the bucs were tired from a road trip and didn't play that bad. Of course, he added, he didn't see the game (which was broadcast on tv).

I'm sure he's a nice guy. All kinds of people got on htis forum and blasted me for giving Bill a hard time.

His show is a joke. I've got a buddy in Knoxville that travels to the tricities on business a lot. When I go up that way, he always asks, "Was Bill talking about Nascar or the Braves today?" That seems to be the only two subjects I ever hear him talking about.

The bucs are history. Time to start supporting Tusculum or the Vols. My money is on ETSU being in a conference with Carson Newman and Tusculum within ten years. Of course, they might not allow ETSU in, without football.

They would be a better fit in the AAC with Milligan, when King leaves and gets FOOTBALL, State could take their spot.

First of all, I heard the caller and I will defend Bill to a certain extent. The caller had gotten a bit biligerant and, yes, the clock was running to news.

Now, Bill COULD have offered to keep him through the break. However, the caller probably was a bit too angry at that time for that.

By the way- I came out of retirement with a call for this afternoon to be the ETSU football show.

Before my call at the end of the first hour they almost were going to talk UT Lady Vols hoops for the show.

But you have to understand a few things. WXSM is the flagship of ETSU. If ETSU comes down on WXSM for being too negative they can always take their broadcasts elsewhere.

And so then Citadel calls Bill Meade into their offices and wonders why they don't have a $32,000 broadcast contract anymore. And he gets fired.

Or at least that is what their perception is. In reality, if ETSU were to try and shop their broadcasts around, they likely would find a lesser audience and few takers.

And there is always the hope that even corporate radio might say "$32,000 isn't worth you losing your journalistic principles. After 17 years, we stand by you."

Again, that might be unrealistic.

But here's what the Tri-Cities media knows.

I wrote a column in 2003 about how David Mullins covered up Ed DeChellis' interview with Penn State. The column won be an award from the Tennessee Sportswriters Association.

Then I got my credentials revoked for it. Unethical- but what do you expect from a tennis coach turned AD?

Mullins' office then released PROPAGANDA saying because I left a telephone message for a female athlete I was acting inappropriately.

That's bunk and everyone knows it.

I have also been told Mullins is upset that I post on this board (DUH!). But then again, what have I said on this board that hasn't been correct?

The Tri-Cities media is gutless. You want to know why I'm not at WFHG anymore? It's because someone from ETSU called them up and asked that I not be sent on assignments to cover them.

Hmmmmm. I wonder why.

Now, WFHG could have said "I'm sorry, but we here make our OWN decisions on who to send out and who not to, and if you'd like us to continue to attend your press conferences and such, you will respect that."

Instead, they folded.

By the way, when I worked at WFHG the station did their best book EVER. Their ratings fell by more than 25% in the next book after I departed.

So ETSU continues to stab their grads in the back.

That's okay. It'll come around to get them eventually, and I'm not going to let up.

And that is their worst fear.

It was a good show. I was the last caller of the program.

People were saying "ETSU doesnt need football. Colleges are about education. "

If I heard that one more time I was going to stab someone. People use that argument when its convenient for them. Take away UT's football program then if schools are all about education. Im sure that would fly...

I never thought I'd see the day where I said this, but Marky, GO AFTER DAVE AND PAUL WITH ANY AND EVERYTHING YOU HAVE. Take your crazy pill, then attack. Those two can rot in hell, along with the rest of our dishonest ******* administrators. They're liars, and pure sorry asses, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!