The French
word "bijou" is defined as a small jewel.
"Bijou" was
also a common name for a cinema long ago,
along with "Rialto," "Temple," and "State."
My birthplace of Traverse City, Michigan,
was fortunate to have its own Bijou
recently.
And now,
it's going by the wayside for a variety of
reasons.
Recently,
filmmaker Michael Moore announced that his
eleven-year-old Bijou By The Bay Cinema had
shown its last film. In a letter to those
following his Traverse City Film Festival,
Moore pointed out the reasons why the
theater was closed. These include a faulty
projector, construction on the Grandview
Parkway, the need for better parking
downtown, and uncertainty regarding the
future of the film business.
Moore
discontinued the Film Festival in 2022,
although he reformatted the event to TCFF
Tuesdays, in which he selected a
special film to be shown at the TCFF's State
Theatre downtown. Throughout the summer, the
State seemed to be on a reduced schedule,
mainly showing older films, which is odd
considering that Moore claimed that last
year's "Barbenheimer" phenomenon was a boon
for the theaters. Currently, the State is
only open on weekends and Tuesdays.
Some in
northern Michigan have argued that Moore had
been out of touch with Traverse City, which
is why he closed the Bijou while the
State—which used to be open 365 days per
year—is only open part of the week. Some
people on social media think that the State
will soon close as well.
Moore and
the TCFF have owned the State since 2006
after it sat dormant for a decade. The first
movie was shown where the State sits in 1916
when it was the Lyric Theater. In 1923, the
first Lyric was razed by a fire while the
second Lyric burned in 1949. When it was
rebuilt, the theater's owners decided to
rename it the State, although it caused some
slight confusion since there was another
State just up the road in Elk Rapids (that
State was renamed the Elk Rapids Cinema in
1960).
Throughout
most of its history, Traverse City was a one
theater-owner town. In the late 1920s, the
W.S. Butterfield chain purchased the Lyric
and eventually owned other theaters in TC,
such as the Tra-Bay and the Michigan, all
downtown. However, in 1984, Butterfield was
sold to the Kerasotes chain. Immediately,
there was a feud within the family since
Butterfield had union projectionists and
George Kerasotes only wanted scabs. As a
result, the Kerasotes chain was split in two
and GKC Theatres was born. Unfortunately,
GKC's Traverse City operations were less
than ideal. Since the scab projectionists
lacked experience, when films started,
sometimes the film itself would jam up in
the projector or the middle of a preview
off-frame.
Because of
GKC, Traverse City was one of the last major
cities in America to receive any updated
technology concerning movie theaters
themselves. For example, Traverse City did
not get its first true multiplex until 1992
when the eight-screen Grand Traverse Mall
Cinema opened. Until then, the area had
three twin-screen theaters, including the
State. Eventually, the mall cinema added a
ninth screen. In 1996, GKC opened the
sardine can-designed ten-screen Horizon
Cinemas. At that time, the State closed.
The State
sat abandoned for the next decade, with
several failed plans, including stage
productions and orchestra concerts. Moore
ended up forming TCFF with author Doug
Stanton to bring movies back to the beloved
and restored theater in 2005.
So, why did
Moore create TCFF? Well, it seems that GKC
wasn't quite chummy with him. In 2001,
Geroge Kerasotes died and his daughter,
Beth, took control of the company. When it
was announced that Moore was working on his
2004 film "Fahrenheit 9/11", Beth announced
that she would forbid any of her cinemas
from showing it because her father - the son
of Greek immigrants - told her to respect
the president of the United States of
America, good or bad. But, since it was
George who busted the projectionists' union
in 1984, heaven forbid that a film that was
anti-Republican be screened at any of her
daddy's cinemas.
However, it
did show at the Horizon. I was there, and it
was packed. I waited HOURS to get in.
In the end,
"9/11" was a box office smash, raking in
$222 million. Moore was thankful that GKC
did show it in TC, but other towns where
they also had a monopoly—such as Alpena,
Ludington, Big Rapids, Sault Ste. Marie, and
others—weren't so lucky. So, he started TCFF
as a middle finger to GKC.
A year
after "9/11" was released and the same year
the TCFF was inaugurated, GKC was sold to
Carmike Cinemas for $66 million. Allegedly,
many members of the Kerasotes family were
angry with Beth for missing out on what
would have been a cash cow for the company.
TCFF bought out the State outright from
Rotary Charities in 2007.
But there
was one catch: they couldn't show current
films.
When
Carmike bought GKC, they kept the company
going as a division. Since GKC was
technically still in business, it was bad
news for Moore. What happened was that when
GKC shuttered the State in 1996, they placed
a deed on the property preventing any future
owner from showing first-run films.
Companies forcing future owners to follow
their edicts is nothing new. For example,
many fast food restaurants force new owners
not to reopen as competing restaurants. It's
like a McDonald's becoming a Burger King.
One notorious order concerns the ABC-owned
cable network Freeform, which used to be Pat
Robertson's Family Channel. Robertson sold
it to Fox in 1997 and then to ABC a few
years later. He ordered every future owner
of the network to air his flagship show, The
700 Club. Of course, Freeform, an
LGBTQ+-friendly network, is known for its
humorous disclaimers before and after the
show, including one that appropriately says,
"Have a lawyer look over any contract before
you sign it."
Despite the
lack of newer films, the State did well
under TCFF’s ownership. I saw the Australian
film “Eddie” there a few years ago, and it
played to a packed crowd. Yet, the State was
likely the only cinema in the country
playing it. Just because Traverse City is a
small town doesn’t mean that its residents
aren’t sophisticated enough for independent
film.
Thanks to
the success of TCFF and the State, Moore
decided it was time to add another cinema.
So, in 2013, he rented and renovated the old
Con Foster Museum along the Grandview
Parkway. The building was erected in the
1930s by FDR’s Civil Works Administration
and named for Conrad Foster, a former
manager of the original Lyric Theater who
later became Traverse City's mayor. The
museum had been vacant for years until Moore
thought it would be a great home for a
theater and a way to get around GKC’s edict.
The Bijou
was small, seating only 150 people. However,
the cinema was an alternative to watching a
movie in one of Carmike's cramped
auditoriums. Nevertheless, Carmike had a
trick up its sleeve.
In 2015, it
was announced that Carmike was going to
build a new 14-screen cinema at Buffalo
Ridge, across the parking lot from the
Horizon Cinemas. The theater, christened the
Cherry Blossom, opened, and both the Horizon
and Grand Traverse Mall Cinemas closed. The
Horizon was transformed into the short-lived
Lucky's Market—a Whole Foods knockoff—and is
now Oryana Co-op. The Mall Cinema is now a
Dunham's Sports store. The theater features
an IMAX screen and something that came to
Traverse City 20 years too late: stadium
seating.
Shortly
after Carmike opened the Cherry Blossom 14,
it was sold to AMC for over $1 billion,
making AMC the nation's largest theater
chain. Even though AMC now owned the Cherry
Blossom, the company decided that it wasn't
worthy of the AMC name because it lacked
several amenities most modern AMC locations
had, like reclining seats. So, in the eyes
of American Multi-Cinema, it wasn’t an AMC,
but an AMC Classic. Although it was only a
year old, it was outdated in AMC's eyes.
But there
was some good news for TCFF. Because GKC and
the two theaters that they owned had ceased
to exist, both the State and Bijou were now
permitted to show first-run films. Plus,
TCFF had more advantages in its fight. For
one, despite being an acronym for "American
Multi-Cinema", AMC at the time was
majority-owned by a Chinese conglomerate,
Wanda Group. TCFF, on the other hand, was a
local nonprofit that believed that going to
the movies shouldn't cost consumers an arm
and a leg. But the Cherry Blossom had its
advantages, too, such as acres of convenient
parking and stadium seating that was perfect
for shorter people, like me.
And then
came COVID-19.
Because
they were owned by a for-profit entity, the
Cherry Blossom had to reopen when COVID
restrictions eased. Moore chose to keep his
theaters closed for the health and safety of
his customers and volunteers. However, some
in the community scrutinized him for asking
for donations to keep the bills paid even
though he is worth millions.
Before the
pandemic, the Film Festival itself was a
boon to Traverse City, bringing in thousands
of people annually. It was where "Borat" had
its debut. It was where legends and current
stars such as Madonna, Tom Morello, Kristen
Bell, Gilbert Gottfried, Jane Fonda, Phil
Donahue, Christine Lahti, Patton Oswalt,
Susan Sarandon, and others were all given a
place to shine in that small town of 16,000.
It was where family films were shown on a
giant, inflatable screen by West Bay.
However, it was not without controversy.
During its
first year, a woman created a right-wing
alternative to the TCFF. It did not attract
large crowds and was discontinued after one
year. The festival itself had issues of its
own. In 2018, Boston Light and Sound sued
them for $160,000 because they claimed that
TCFF had not paid them for the service they
had provided. TCFF had paid BL&S to
install projection and sound for their
venues, but they countersued, claiming that
BL&S's workmanship was shoddy at best.
The lawsuit was settled a year later.
Legendary film critic and author Leonard
Maltin, who had appeared at the 2017 TCFF,
criticized Moore for his lawsuit against the
company. Rumor has it that Maltin is friends
with BL&S's owners. Another controversy
involved former TCFF executive director Deb
Lake, who claimed that Moore had fired her
after he had claimed that she had left of
her own accord. Moore claimed that the TCFF
board, not he, had fired Lake after 13 years
at the helm.
Because of
COVID-19, there was no Film Festival in 2020
or 2021. However, it did return in 2022,
although things were a bit different.
Instead of using nontraditional venues such
as the City Opera House and Lars Hockstad
Auditorium, they used the State, Bijou, and
even the Cherry Blossom to screen their
films. But sadly, it was the festival's
final year.
In a
statement, Moore admitted that the Festival
had been operating in the red for years and
finally broke even in 2022. In a statement,
he said that he wanted to work on a new
concept for TCFF, which was the current TCFF
Tuesdays at the State and maintaining both
theaters as a "year-round Film Festival".
However,
there had been speculation that Moore
himself wasn't even at his last festival.
According to an alleged volunteer at the
last festival, who wrote to the Northern
Express, he was "micromanaging" the event
from his home in New York City. Plus, he
questioned the $1 million that was given to
TCFF from COVID relief funds.
Bear in
mind that TCFF is a year-round event, not
just a week-long celebration of movies in
the summer. Maintaining old buildings isn't
cheap, you know.
Now, a new
problem recently arose regarding TCFF, and
that was indeed the Bijou's permanent
closure. Moore stated that the projector
broke down. Allegedly, the theater's
projector was manufactured by Barco (Belgian
American Radio Corporation), and many in the
movie projection business have compared
Barco projectors to FIATs. On a Facebook
group devoted to movie theaters, one person
claimed that his cinema used Barcos and they
all broke down.
In 2016,
the Elk Rapids Cinema (pictured above is its
late owner, Joe Yuchasz, with Moore) went
digital, like everyone else in the movie
business. I fondly remember him saying that
he "used the same people as the Film
Festival" to make his $80,000 upgrade. Joe
passed away early last year, and his family
sold the Cinema to the nonprofit Chalfonte
Foundation. Not long after the sale, the
projector began having serious meltdowns,
costing the Cinema over $16,000 in repairs
and resulting in a few weeks of being
closed. I've been in the booth, and their
projector looks like a Barco.
According
to one of those projectionists, Christie is
the best brand money can buy. According to
Google, they can run from $80,000 to
$150,000, maybe even more. In a letter to
its followers, the Cinema is considering a
fundraiser to replace its faulty projector.
Yes, road
construction is a pain, but this is
Michigan, and it's necessary. The same goes
for the Bijou's parking situation. There is
indeed a parking lot across from the
theater, but there's also a large fence in
front of it that doesn't make things any
easier. With the Parkway torn up last
summer, it's no wonder why Moore had to keep
it closed.
And of
course, the biggest elephant in the room is
the movie business itself. True, the
Barbenheimer phenomenon helped the theater
business, especially TCFF, but Moore is
correct: Hollywood has not formally
recovered from the pandemic, and its glory
days just might be behind it.
Before the
pandemic, when a movie was released, it was
released in stages. When it was out its
first week, it was called a first run. After
a movie leaves most theaters, the studio
would then release it to smaller "dollar
houses" or second-run theaters. Finally,
after the film officially leaves theaters,
the studio would put it on home video for
the world to own or rent. Later on,
streaming would take over that role.
In olden
times, if a movie went straight to video, it
was guaranteed to be terrible. Usually,
those films were made on a shoestring budget
and starred a washed-up actor. Today, thanks
to Netflix and other streaming services,
people don’t need to go to a theater to see
a good movie with top talent.
Nowadays, a
movie will go straight to digital when the
studio feels like it, even if it's still in
the top 10 at the box office. Multiplex
theaters could not care less, but it's bad
news for smaller theaters that only want to
book a film for a week or two and even worse
for the aforementioned dollar houses. Here
in Grand Rapids, the theater market is
dominated by the Loeks family, who own
Celebration Cinemas. At one point, they
owned every multiplex in town except the AMC
Cinema on Alpine (which used to be the Star
Theatre, which was ironically started by
Barrie Loeks, the son of chain founder Jack
Loeks).
In 2008,
Celebration Cinema purchased Cinemark's two
theaters in Grand Rapids, both located at
Rivertown Crossings and Woodland Mall. Since
the Woodland location was between
Celebration North and South, the chain
decided to convert it into a hybrid
second-run and indie theater. However,
during the pandemic, Celebration decided to
shutter the Woodland Mall cinema, stating
that their lease with the Mall was up, plus
the fact that it never broke even playing
older films at $4.99 a pop. Woodland ended
up with Detroit-based Phoenix Theatres, who
renovated the cinema after years of neglect
by Celebration. Pictures revealed that some
of the theaters had a leaky roof, which
caused mold to grow on the seats. Phoenix
went ahead and remodeled the 14-screener
from top to bottom, adding recliner seats
and Dolby Atmos auditoriums.
Dollar
houses were usually older theaters that
catered to those who wanted to see movies
for less money. Because the movies were
older, the prints usually came from another
cinema that had seen better days. I remember
seeing "Ted" at the Woodland Cinema, and
there was a sequence where I was afraid that
the print was going to break apart in the
projector since it was beaten to a pulp.
Before the days of streaming, they served a
purpose. Now that most films are on
streaming services after their box office
run, second-run cinemas no longer have a
reason to exist.
Unfortunately,
the studios are a huge problem. Take Warner
Bros., as an example. They created
controversy not too long ago when they
shelved several films and took a tax
write-off on them, including "Coyote Vs.
Acme" in which the devilish Looney Tunes
character finally sues the manufacturer of
all those contraptions that were supposed to
help him catch the speedy Road Runner. Some
people claimed that the movie was well done
and hilarious, plus it would have made its
creator, Chuck Jones, proud. Sadly, while
Warners shelved that film, they unloaded the
abortion called "Joker: Folie a Deux" onto
the general public. The first "Joker" was
brilliant, but the idiots at Warners felt
that the sequel needed to be a fucking
musical with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. Not
only did the movie cause Warners to lose
$200 million at the box office, but on its
second week of release, it got its ass
handed to them by "Terrifier 3", a
micro-budget horror film that not only made
a good profit but also got decent reviews
from critics.
In the
1940s, studios held a monopoly on movies.
They owned the cinemas in major cities, and
by the time movies were finally cycled into
smaller towns, the prints were warped and
scratched. This was why the smaller
exhibitors banded together, sued the
studios, and won. Because of this, the
studios were forced to sell their cinemas,
and the old Hollywood system was broken up.
However, smaller, one-screen theaters were
prone to showing older films.
For years,
Yuchasz told me and all of his customers
about how he booked movies. He seldom showed
a movie during its first week because the
studios wanted him to show their films on a
two-to-six-week contract, but mostly for
four weeks. With only one screen, it was
cost-prohibitive for him, especially if the
film flopped at the box office. So, he kept
a list of movies he wanted to show. On
Mondays, he would call the distributors to
ask if a one-week contract was available. If
the answer was "yes," he would book the
film. He did show a small number of movies
during their first week over the
years—namely, the Shrek series—but
considering that Elk Rapids is a town of
mostly elderly people, he realized that they
were not interested in driving to Traverse
City to see a movie or in learning how to
operate a streaming device.
However,
the studios found a way to fuck over
mom-and-pop movie houses.
In the
mid-2010s, the studios banded together to
announce that they would no longer release
films in the century-old format, effective
in the coming years. Instead, they were
going strictly digital. Big chain
multiplexes such as AMC and Regal had no
problems making the conversion. But for
small-town theaters, the studios all but
gave them a death sentence.
Here in
West Michigan, Celebration Cinema has had
zero problems since it's a
multi-million-dollar company. However, in my
original stomping grounds of northern
Michigan, several theaters had no choice but
to create crowdfunding pages to urge their
fans to help them invest in new projectors,
even though they were for-profit entities.
One cinema, Grayling's Rialto Theatre, even
enlisted the services of longtime Detroit
Piston broadcaster George Blaha—who grew up
in Grayling—to make a video pleading to
people to save the cinema, owned by the same
family that started it in 1915, from
closing. The Elk Rapids Cinema simply got an
$80,000 bank loan to upgrade to its current
projector and sound system.
Many
cinemas in northern Michigan have followed
Moore's model and are now nonprofit.
Frankfort's Garden Theater, Benzie County's
sole indoor cinema, became a nonprofit in
2018. Shortly thereafter, The Bay in Suttons
Bay was taken over by a nonprofit after its
longtime owner declared that he could no
longer afford to keep it open. Today,
nonprofit cinemas are located in Traverse
City, Suttons Bay, Frankfort, Elk Rapids,
and Harbor Springs, following the example
Moore started with the Film Festival.
When Moore
made the announcement that he was closing
the Bijou, many on social media attacked him
for his policies. One elderly woman even
posted, "Less is Moore!" Some are now hoping
that the State will follow suit and go dark.
Here's a
question I would like to ask anyone who
loves to pour Hatorade on Michael Moore:
HAVE YOU SEEN ANY OF HIS MOVIES? Have years
of watching Faux News and listening to Rush
Limbaugh made you THAT fucking retarded that
you have zero concept of how things actually
work? Hell, I saw a movie that his main
rival, Dinesh D'Souza made a few years ago
called "2000 Mules" and it was a pile of
horse shit. He showed people wearing gloves
putting multiple ballots in ballot boxes. He
and a bunch of assholes from Salem Radio
were all crying that these people were from
a group designed to make Biden the winner of
the 2020 election. Hey, Dinesh! 1) By law,
people legally cannot vote multiple times.
They will get caught. Seriously. 2) Those
multiple ballots could have been from family
members and friends of those dropping them
off. There's no law against that. And 3)
People were wearing gloves not to hide their
fingerprints, BUT THEY WERE PROTECTING
THEMSELVES FROM FUCKING COVID!!! YOU MADE
THIS MOVIE BECAUSE DRUMPF PARDONED YOU.
AFTER ALL, YOU BECAME A CONVICTED FELON.
AFTER ALL, YOU MADE ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN
CONTRIBUTIONS! DO AMERICA A FAVOR AND MOVE
BACK TO INDIA YOU FUCKING COCKSUCKER!
You see,
I've been a fan of Moore's since I was
young. One of my fondest childhood memories
was watching his short-lived, but brilliant
NBC series TV Nation. When I grew up and
moved to Grand Rapids in 2002, I decided to
see his superb flick "Bowling For
Columbine". That horrible tragedy occurred
when I was a Junior in high school. I
remembered the impact it had on me and the
fact that because of an abundance of
caution, we all went into the school gym
after rumors were spread of a bomb threat at
my school. Seeing the film and watching
Charleton Heston walk away from Moore after
he gave him a picture of a little girl who
was murdered in his hometown of Flint,
Michigan. It shamed me that I grew up not
horribly far from where Heston grew up in
the small town of St. Helen, Michigan.
I was in
Traverse City on vacation when "Fahrenheit
9/11" was released and had to see it. I did
have some respect for Dubya during the
terrorist attacks that day but became
skeptical because the wars he started all
had nothing to do with the attacks. The
movie simply taught me that you do have a
right as an American to hate and criticize
the president. I spent many years on
Chuck69.com giving Dubya the BOTD because of
his pro-war policies, plus the fact that his
tax cuts for the wealthy screwed over
working-class people like me.
One of the
best things Moore ever did was, years ago on
Larry King Live, tell a young caller that
his generation needed to give my generation
a sincere apology for screwing them over.
When I was in my 20s, I had to endure years
of no raises or personal growth. Much of it
was due to the spoiled baby boomers who
voted for Reagan because they hated being in
long gas lines. Even today, adjusted for
inflation, my parents made way more than I
do now.
I've seen
every Moore film except for "Roger & Me"
and "Canadian Bacon." "The Big One" opened
my eyes to why the Democratic Party has been
ineffective for years. It explained that
even Clinton didn't have much love for the
middle class, either.
However,
many criticize that when 2007's "Sicko," his
attack on America's for-profit healthcare
industry, had far less money than
"Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore pointed the blame
at the fact that just days before the film
arrived in theaters, his distributor,
Lionsgate, was bought out by a doctor who
was anti-universal healthcare. As a matter
of fact, "Sicko" opened in half as many
theaters as "9/11." But it was profitable.
"Capitalism:
A Love Story" from 2009 was made for $20
million, but only grossed $17 million at the
box office. A year after its release, its
distributor, Overture Films, closed down.
Many felt that the reason the film was a
disappointment was because people were
simply burned out from hearing about Dubya's
disastrous presidency.
For his
next major film, 2015's "Where To Invade
Next," Moore worked with an unnamed company
that would eventually become the indie
giant, Neon. In the movie, Moore discussed
that many of the freedoms that other
countries have are because of us, the
American people. And yet, we Americans don't
have what they have, such as universal
healthcare, paid work leave, and healthy
school lunches. However, it only grossed
just over $4 million due to a lack of
promotion and the fact that Moore fell ill
with pneumonia and lead poisoning when he
should have been promoting the film.
Moore's
last film to date was 2018's "Fahrenheit
11/9", released by another tiny indie,
Briarcliff Entertainment. That movie was
designed to trash Drumpf and his multiple
problems. It was released to more theaters
than any of Moore's films, but it only
grossed $7 million at the box office.
When "11/9"
bombed, one person claimed that much of the
film was all things the general public
already knew. The film touched on the fact
that too many times when Senator Bernie
Sanders took the lectern while campaigning,
the news media would turn to a Trump rally
where he would not take the stage for 20
minutes. The news networks—MSNBC, CNN, and
especially Fox News—did their best to censor
Sanders and his pro-middle-class message.
Just before he died in 2018, former MSNBC
host Ed Schultz revealed why he was fired
from the network. He proclaimed that the
channel's president, Phil Griffin, wanted
him to stop talking about Sanders, but he
refused. Moore showed that the
corporate-owned networks simply wanted
nothing to do with Sanders because they all
feared that he would raise their taxes if
elected president.
It's been
six years since Moore has released a film,
though he claims he's in the middle of
making one as I type this. Obviously, that
means a lot of time away from his post at
the TCFF and more time in New York and
wherever he needs to be to produce it.
Another question is which company would be
interested in releasing it? Obviously,
Disney is a big, fat no. Warners released
"Roger and Me," though that company is
definitely right-leaning these days.
Paramount? Meh. Sony? Ditto. United Artists
released "Bowling for Columbine," but
they're now owned by Amazon. And yes, the
Weinsteins—especially Harvey—are pretty much
out of the film business these days.
Besides, they co-produced 'Capitalism,' and
Moore sued them for back payment. So, that
bridge has long been burned.
I'm sure
either Neon, Briarcliff or even A24 might
give Mike another chance. If he is indeed
making another film, I have an idea of what
the main topic needs to be: how fucked up
the media is.
Now, if the
topic of "Will Michael Moore ever read this
article?" comes up on one of those online
betting sites like Fanduel or BetRivers, I'm
99-point-infinity-9% sure he doesn't give
two shits about me. But, if he ever did read
my blogs, I do wish that he'd make a film
about how evil and corrupt the media truly
is. It would talk about how the FCC used to
create a level playing field between
broadcasters and consumers. They forbade any
entity from owning both a newspaper and a
radio and/or TV station in the same area.
They had the Fairness Doctrine which ordered
newscasts to be fair and balanced and made
viewers and listeners think for themselves.
They only allowed entities to own one TV
station, one AM station, and one FM station
in any given area. Plus, entities were only
allowed to own a handful of stations.
The
Fairness Doctrine was a godsend to African
Americans, especially in the South. Jackson,
Mississippi’s WLBT-TV was owned by the Lamar
Life Insurance Company, which had ties to
the KKK and several white supremacy groups.
After years of protests and censorship by
WLBT, the FCC revoked the station’s license
in 1970 and handed it to a group of local
citizens of various races, who turned the
troubled station into a voice for all those
in the Jackson area. The FCC even ordered
all TV sets from 1964 onward to have UHF
tuners since many TV markets—even major
cities like Austin, Texas, and Toledo,
Ohio—only had room on the VHF band for one
or two stations, forcing the Big Three
networks to shoehorn their shows into
certain towns. Some markets like South Bend,
Indiana, and Huntsville, Alabama, were “UHF
islands” where VHF stations were not
allowed. Thanks to the old-school FCC, they
opened the spectrum so more people could
have access to more popular network shows.
Think of it: if the FCC had acted sooner,
people in Birmingham, Alabama, might have
been able to watch The Beatles’ performances
on The Ed Sullivan Show.
However,
the shit started to hit the fan because of
one man: Richard Nixon. He appointed a
number of new Supreme Court justices, and in
1973, they became the reason why you can't
say certain words on TV or radio. In 1974, a
father from New York City was driving with
his 15-year-old son and was listening to
WBAI, the Pacifica-owned station in the
city. They were playing George Carlin's
"Seven Dirty Words" track uncensored, and he
complained. However, Pacifica fought the
FCC, claiming that Carlin's routine was
protected under the First Amendment. The
case made its way up to the Supreme Court,
which then sided with the FCC.
Thanks to
Reagan, in 1987, he repealed the Fairness
Doctrine, calling it unnecessary. What he
did was pave the way for right-wing talkers
like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and others
while liberals were silenced. Nine years
later, Clinton made things worse with the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, which
virtually abolished the limits on how many
stations one entity could own. Today, there
are many areas where only three companies
own over 90% of the radio stations in a
town. In some areas, like Toledo, only two
companies control all the stations.
But things
were only going to get worse. After Janet
Jackson's infamous Super Bowl Halftime Show
nip slip, the FCC jacked up indecency fines
to over $100,000, causing TV stations and
radio stations to tone down their content.
It was also a major reason why Howard Stern
moved his radio show from terrestrial radio
to Sirius in 2006.
However,
some broadcasters have found ways to
circumvent the FCC regarding ownership.
Which area is a shining example of this?
Yep! Traverse City, Mike's stomping grounds,
and my birthplace. NBC affiliate WPBN-TV
7&4 is owned by Sinclair Broadcast
Group, a publicly traded company headed by
David Smith, whose father, Julian Sinclair
Smith, founded the company in 1971. The
Smiths privately own Cunningham
Broadcasting, which owns TC's ABC affiliate,
WGTU 29&8. Since Sinclair and Cunningham
are two separate companies in the eyes of
the FCC, they permitted the two to operate
together under the Up North Live branding
when Sinclair purchased 7&4 in 2013. As
it was, the previous owners, Barrington
Broadcasting, used a firm called Tucker
Broadcasting to "own" 29&8.
Ditto with
WWTV 9&10, the market’s CBS affiliate.
The Iacobelli family has owned the station
since 1988, but in 2007, they took control
of the local Fox affiliate, WFQX Local 32.
On paper, WFQX is owned by Cadillac
Telecasting, which is owned by a family
friend in Arizona.
Because of
this, Traverse City now has fewer media
choices than even Marquette, a market long
dominated by WLUC-TV 6, once the only
television station in the western Upper
Peninsula for decades. Granted, neither
29&8 nor 32 had great news departments.
Also, at one point, 29&8 was partially
owned by Pat Robertson's son, Tim.
Even worse,
Sinclair is noted for its right-wing bias
regarding news. 9&10's not much better,
especially since last year, they hired
Christina Aguayo, a woman who was fired from
a TV station in El Paso for kissing State
Attorney General Ken Paxton's ass in an
interview. Thankfully, she left 9&10
last summer to return to Texas to work for a
company more suited for a brainless cunt
like her, Salem Media. Word has it that
things have gotten rotten for 9&10,
especially with the station's immense
turnover and swirling rumors that they are
planning to move out of their
mausoleum-style building off 131 in Cadillac
after only being there for a few
years.
Same thing
with radio. When I was up north a few weeks
ago, I was shocked at how many religious
stations now dominate the dial. However,
it's a problem everywhere else, too.
Corporate media has shown that it does a
poor job of running radio stations, to the
point that they end up selling or donating
them to religious groups like K-Love. But in
a way, it's karma for turning into a
cookie-cutter industry that puts profits
over quality.
Remember
Air America? Well, it died a sad death, all
because it inked a deal with Clear Channel
(now iHeartMedia) to air its programming on
various stations. However, Mitt Romney's
Bain Capital purchased many shares of iHeart
and ordered Air America off its stations.
Here in Michigan, WDTW 1310 in Detroit went
silent and was sold to a Spanish
broadcaster. WPRR 1680 Grand Rapids' owner
Bob Goodrich fired Program Director and
Southpaws host Darren Gibson because he
announced on the air that he would not
support Hillary Clinton for President after
what the Democrats did to Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders. Not long after Gibson's
dismissal, Goodrich—who ran for U.S.
Representative in 2014 but lost to
Republican Justin Amash—promoted afternoon
host Tyrone Bynum to PD. However, in 2020,
Goodrich was forced to declare bankruptcy
due to financial troubles at his movie
theater chain. Bynum was given full control
of WPRR and eventually bought the station
from Goodrich. WPRR is now an adult R&B
station as 102.5 The Ride.
Even in
ultra-left Ann Arbor, Air America fans got
screwed over when iHeart sold WLBY 1290 to
another right-leaning company, Cumulus. Bear
in mind that Cumulus was the same company
that made headlines when they banned the
group formerly known as The Dixie Chicks
because lead singer Natalie Maines trashed
Dubya on stage. WLBY had decent ratings with
Air America, especially for a station with a
meager signal. Cumulus originally switched
WLBY to business talk but is now a
conservative talker with Dan Bongino, Matt
Walsh, and Ben Shapiro.
Sadly,
left-leaning talk has also disappeared from
the airwaves in northern Michigan. Twenty
years ago, Rick Stone owned two talk radio
stations in Petoskey: WJML 1110, which
carried Michael Savage, Dave Ramsey, and
Neal Boortz, and WWKK 750, which aired Air
America's programming as well as Ed Schultz
and a few other shows from the Michigan Talk
Radio Network.
However,
750's days as a talk station ended in 2007
when Roy Henderson made a deal with Stone to
trade 750 for 1210 in Traverse City, which
would give WJML a listenable signal in the
Grand Traverse region as a simulcast with
1110. Henderson—who had zero luck with 1210,
a station rife with technical
difficulties—flipped 750 to a simulcast of
his WLDR 101.9 in Traverse City. WJML told
750's listeners that some of their shows
would move to the new 1110/1210 simulcast.
In reality, Ed Schultz was the sole host
that was heard in the daytime while most of
the liberals moved to the overnight hours
when 1110 broadcasted with just 10 watts and
1210 was totally off the air to protect WPHT
1210 Philadelphia. However, even Schultz
himself was getting the shaft as eventually,
he was only heard for one hour daily on
WJML. Eventually, WJML canceled Schultz's
show, leaving northern Michigan with no
commercial progressive talk show host.
And guess
whom WJML replaced Schultz with? Good ol'
Alex Jones. With the demise of his career
concerning his lawsuit from the families of
the victims of Sandy Hook, I'll bet you that
Rick Stone—who sold 1110/1210 in 2017 to
John Yob, the son of Republican strategist
Chuck Yob—has eaten plenty of crow. Today,
all three stations—750, 1110, and 1210—are
sitting silent, with the latter two
currently for sale.
Due to the
lack of media sources, people have limited
options for discourse and opinions. Notably,
Fox News was compelled to pay $787 million
for disseminating falsehoods about the 2020
election involving Dominion Voting Systems.
Jones was ordered to pay approximately $1.5
billion to the families of those impacted by
the Sandy Hook massacre. Nevertheless,
people have an inexplicable fascination with
being deceived.
AFAIK,
Moore was never sued. Why? BECAUSE HE TELLS
THE TRUTH! He loves ripping the Repukes
apart but does an awesome job of criticizing
the Dems, too. He's a humble man who never
chided away from his roots in Flint,
Michigan. He's heartbroken that the town he
called home is now a fraction of what it was
thanks to Repukes busting the unions and
forcing its citizens to drink polluted
water.
Of course,
he now calls Traverse City his home. He
abandoned Flint because it's not coming
back. Traverse City never had any huge auto
factories or large skyscrapers except for
the Grand Traverse Resort just north of
town. He knows that it's an ideal place to
raise a family and relax. But it isn't
perfect.
Recently,
when James Earl Jones passed away, Moore
spoke about meeting the beloved actor a few
years ago. Moore mentioned to Jones that he
now lived in Traverse City, and Jones
replied, "Traverse City is racist." In his
autobiography, Jones, who grew up near
Manistee, was with a group of fellow
students and his teacher at a debate team
meet in Traverse City in the 1940s. His
teacher took him and his students to a nice
restaurant in town. When Jones sat down, a
voice told him, "No colored people will be
served here." Because of this, Jones never
thought positively of Traverse City again.
Michael told him that the city is improving
regarding race, but it still has a long way
to go. In the article, Moore pointed out
that there are areas in northern Michigan
where Confederate flags still fly. He even
pointed out the recent controversy where
Traverse City High School students engaged
in a fictional "slave trade" involving the
few Black students who attend the school.
Also, in
the article, Moore spoke about a restaurant
in town where there are pictures of the
minstrel shows that once occurred in town as
late as the 1980s, complete with blackface.
When he mentioned that, I wrote him a letter
about a restaurant near Traverse City that I
worked at as a teenager in the 1990s. In
their break area, they had a photo album
from the owner's family's old restaurant a
few miles down the road. They even had
minstrel shows with men in blackface in the
1960s. When my boss showed me the photos,
her words were, "We had a lot of fun, but
the damn NAACP shut us down!"
Racism,
sadly, has long reared its ugly head in the
North. I used to associate with people who
used the n-word. My great-aunt and -uncle
were among the many card-carrying racists in
the North. They were farmers like the Friske
family up the road from us in Atwood, whose
German patriarch, Richard, fought with the
Nazis in World War II and was a state
representative in the ’70s who was a staunch
supporter of segregation.
When TCFF
purchased the State, downtown Traverse City
did have a few abandoned buildings and a few
botched developments that were never
completed. If anyone knows anything about
Traverse City, it knows how to fight back.
When Grand Traverse Mall came to town in
1992, it lost JCPenney. However, Horizon
Books moved across the street and took over
the old building, creating an awesome
experience for readers of all types. Today,
downtown Traverse City is filled with unique
businesses that sell just about anything.
The Mall, however, is now half-empty and
poorly managed by Brookfield Properties,
which is selling off its malls one by one.
These days, the only thing the mall has that
downtown doesn’t is convenient parking and a
carousel.
You see, I
was born in Traverse City. I was upset that
my cousins in Detroit got to go to concerts
and listen to kick-ass rock stations that
didn't play Boston or Foreigner every 30
minutes. My home and school lives weren't
perfect. In the 1990s, Grand Traverse Mall
was the only cool place to be. I felt that
nobody was listening to my generation.
After I
left northern Michigan for good in 2002,
there were aspects of the area that
improved. The big one was TCFF's restoration
of the State. Moore knew that many people in
northern Michigan felt that they had no seat
at the table, so he created one. The fact
that the State shows $1 children's movies is
great for parents who want to pay less money
for tickets. Plus, the fact that they show
good, independent movies gives the community
an alternative to whatever quirky Marvel
movie the Cherry Blossom is playing.
And yet,
people still trash Moore online. They cry
about the $6 million mansion he used to live
in by Torch Lake. They love to post pictures
of him and his former friend Harvey
Weinstein. They call him a hypocrite, though
they voted for a douchebag who rapes women
and sucker the working class into thinking
that tariffs and tax cuts for the wealthy
are all a good thing.
The people
of northern Michigan must remember that
Moore likes to unite people and does so with
the art of motion pictures. He wants people
to get out of the house once in a while to
see and experience Traverse City. He did not
want to see Traverse City turn into a ghost
town, especially after what the failed
developers did to downtown.
True, TCFF
did lose the Bijou. Some want the State
Theatre to die soon, too. How I see it is
simple: Tom's Food Markets closed its stores
in Acme and Cherryland Center. Does that
mean it's failing? No. Instead, it had to
adapt. Besides, it just remodeled its
Northport store. Oleson's once had three
locations in Traverse City. It's down to
two, plus it has closed stores in Cadillac
and Manistee. But, it's still doing well,
especially since it has a fairly new store
in Petoskey, and its TC locations were both
built around 2000.
The only
thing about business that never changes is
change. How many grocery stores do not have
checkout scanners? How many radio stations
still play vinyl records? How many movie
theaters still use actual film projectors?
How many gas stations do not have
pay-at-the-pump options? We could go on.
The Bijou
had its good points. However, it was small
and not really designed to make a decent
profit for TCFF. It wasn't even designed to
be a movie theater in the first place.
Still, Michael wanted to compete with
Carmike and have a hand in the first-run
movie market. Now that Traverse City has a
modern megaplex, the State can do whatever
it wants. If they want to show independent
films, great. If they want to show the
latest action flick from Marvel or DC, they
can go wild.
Since I
moved to Grand Rapids in 2002, Traverse City
has demonstrated that it has some good
qualities over my current hometown. Downtown
Traverse City has far more retail than
downtown Grand Rapids. Granted, there are
arenas and a new soccer stadium being built
downtown named after (surprise) Amway, but
there are hardly any real stores in downtown
Grand Rapids. The big plus, in my humble
opinion, is the fact that the only place in
Traverse City that's DeVos-oriented is the
Ford/Lincoln/BMW/Mercedes dealership.
Another
quality is the decent selection of
independent cinema. I applaud not just TCFF,
but also the Chalfonte Foundation for their
wonderful operation of the Elk Rapids
Cinema. When Joe Yuchasz ran the cinema, it
was hardly as profitable as it is now. That
was why when he died, his family did not
want it. So, they sold it to a nonprofit
organization that not only helps fight
poverty but also promotes the arts.
Recently, the cinema was one of only a
minuscule group of theaters that showed the
movie "Blitz" starring Saoirse Ronan and
directed by Oscar winner Steve McQueen, who
directed "12 Years a Slave". Although the
movie can be streamed on Apple TV, it has to
play in a minimal number of theaters to be
considered for an Oscar. True, Celebration
Cinemas does show indie films, but they lack
the intimacy of a nice, classic cinema.
And yes,
the Grand Traverse area has two strip clubs.
One of them, Fantasy’s, is owned by Deja Vu
and is full-nude. The other club, Rapid
City’s Crossroads, is topless only. Grand
Rapids outlawed nude dancing in 2006. At
least if you’re a lonely man, you don’t have
to drive 50 miles to look at a girl’s
hoo-hah.
What's sad
is the amount of stupidity I see in a lot of
northern Michiganders, especially those who
hate Michael Moore and want to see the State
sit sad and lonely for many more years. They
love to bitch about his mansion that he lost
in the divorce and blah, blah, blah, waa,
waa, waa. Folks, in the past 20 years,
Michael Moore has done a hell of a lot more
than a shit-ton of people for Traverse City.
Hell, look at Roy Henderson. Not only did he
help to take progressive talk radio off the
air in northern Michigan, but he ran several
radio stations into the ground, including
WLDR 101.9. He spent almost $4 million on
that station alone and down the street from
the State, tried to build a building that
was over the city's height limit. So, he
decided to fight the city and lost. In the
process, he left a hole in the ground at
Front and Park Streets that he tried to sell
for $5 million. After nearly a decade, the
city got fed up and told Henderson to sell
it or else pay hefty fines. He settled for
$2 million and the property is now a Credit
Union. Meanwhile, Henderson created a toxic
work environment at WLDR where not only were
employees' paychecks bouncing, but he was
throwing objects at them, including computer
monitors. His anger and money issues caused
WLDR to lose many long-time staffers and
reduce them to a satellite-fed jukebox with
low ratings. Plus, he's lost several
lawsuits, including the one where morning
man Dan Stevens sued him for $25,000 for not
honoring his contract. More recently,
Henderson tried to sue Blarney Stone
Broadcasting, to whom he lost WLDR's
transmitter in a sheriff's sale because he
wasn't paying taxes on it. BSB was leasing
Henderson's stations from him to help expand
their stations in Grayling, rocker Q100, and
Up North Sports 101.1. However, BSB
discovered that 99.3 in Frankfort's
transmitter had a major malfunction some
years ago and Henderson did not tell the
FCC. Since Henderson was in violation of
their contract because 99.3's signal was
supposed to be 50,000 watts, BSB slapped a
repeater for 99.3 on WLDR's tower, which
wasn't approved by the FCC. As a result, the
engineer for Alpena's WATZ - also on 99.3 -
reported them and it was Henderson - not BSB
- that got a $20,000 fine from the FCC.
Henderson tried to sue BSB, but the judge
ruled in favor of BSB. Since BSB owns the
transmitter, Henderson does not want to do
business with them. So for the past several
years, WLDR has only broadcasted 800 watts
with a short tower from its studio across
from Tom's Food Market's West Bay location.
The station is reported silent by the FCC
for financial issues, though when I was up
north a few weeks ago, it was on the air
with a signal that didn't always stop on my
car stereo's scanner. It was airing a
mish-mash of adult contemporary classics
with odd European tunes like Desireless'
French language "Voyage Voyage" and Opus'
"Live is Life". The music all sounded like
it was coming from the right channel and the
sound processing was incredibly soft.
Folks, this
is the person people in TC should be angry
at: Roy Henderson, not Michael Moore. Moore
has done a great deal of good for northern
Michigan. Is he perfect? Of course not. At
least he didn't screw people over with
contracts like Henderson did. I understand
that when his Benzie County stations went
silent, Henderson lied to the FCC and told
them that they were on the air, simulcasting
WLDR, and WLDR included them in their
top-of-the-hour ID. The only good thing I
can say about Roy is that he had a massive
heart attack a few years ago, and since he's
75, he may not be long for this world. I
hope someday his family will sell his
stations to someone—not a Jesuscaster—who
cares about northern Michigan. I know that
it won't be for the $3.6 million he splurged
on it 24 years ago. Heck, WKLT was sold for
a mere $400,000, and that was just for 97.5.
Plus, he's had to sell off some of his homes
due to alleged back taxes and now lives in a
rented townhouse behind the Walmart in
Cascade Township near Grand Rapids.
Coincidentally, he lives just a few miles
down 28th Street from another failed
broadcaster, Bob Goodrich.
At least
Michael knows what the future of the Bijou
building should behold: a museum run by the
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa
Indians. In his letter, Moore felt that the
tribe was the best suitor for the building
and a place that would teach people their
history and culture. The city has said that
there's a legal process in doing so, and it
could take some time for it to happen. I
agree with Mike that it needs to happen. I
feel that if it becomes a reality, there
should be a section devoted to how America
and the Catholic Church once forced Native
American children from their homes and into
schools where they were horribly beaten,
sexually assaulted, forced to eat spoiled
food with maggots, and even murdered. Even
more pathetic was that some of those schools
were located in northern Michigan.
Folks, I
started Chuck69.com 25 years ago as a
wake-up call to northern Michigan. I got
tired of having few places to go. When I was
in high school, the restaurant I worked at
had a karaoke party and I waited all night
only to be told that I wasn't going up there
because I had to be 21, even though the
owner's son, who was hosting the party,
allowed certain people to go up there like
his cousin. Yet, my boss, Miss "The Damned
NAACP Made Us Stop", made me work with a
child molester who spent two years in prison
for grabbing an eleven-year-old boy's
crotch. Before that, he was babysitting a
six-year-old boy and his mother witnessed
him performing oral sex on him. However, due
to sufficient evidence, the pedophile was
set free. That restaurant, by the way, went
out of business because the owners retired
due to poor health and the fact that they
were one of the lowest-rated restaurants in
town on Yelp.
Sadly,
Traverse City is sometimes called "Tragic
City" because of the amount of drunk driving
incidents and places where you have to be
over 21 to enter. Even the former mayor of
TC, Jim Carruthers, was arrested for drunk
driving. If you're under 21 in a lot of
places up north, you feel unwelcome. Not
only that, it gives organized religion a
chance to prey on them, like New Hope
Community Church, just north of Traverse
City. I listened to their youth pastor, John
Clark, bitch about porn and sex being bad
for you. Yet, this asshole left New Hope,
started his own church, Westside, stole
$500,000 from it and as he was being
investigated, he took out a gun and blew his
brains out.
I'm a
member of several Traverse City-based groups
on Facebook. When someone talked about the
has-been 2000s rock band Trapt coming to
Kalkaska to play at a small bar, I decided
to post a few videos where they were playing
in front of hardly anyone. I even brought up
the fact that lead singer Chris Brown was a
racist douchebag and had their social media
accounts shut down because of his derogatory
posts. But, the assholes of Kalkaska fought
back because they're just like Chris Brown.
All they care about is that the guys behind
the 20-year-old rock anthem "Headstrong" are
coming to town. After all, the people of
Kalkaska are bigots, too. My former
stepsister - who is bisexual - lives in the
nearby Forest Area and was called a "dyke"
in high school by a male classmate because
she was holding hands with a female friend.
She reported him to the principal. His
response? "If you want to display this
behavior this is what happens."
Bear in
mind that Kalkaska does not have a movie
theater. They did have the Kal Theater,
which operated from the 1920s until the
mid-20th century. It is now a carpet store.
Nearby Mancelona is a lot trashier and they
once had a cinema downtown, the Lona. It
burned down in the late 70s after a drunk
driver crashed into it. The downtown BP gas
station is where the cinema once stood.
Mancelona has had a long history of not
having much for young people to do. When I
was young, I remember hearing about many of
the town's high school students being
pregnant.
I know that
many call northern Michigan "God's Country",
but it's anything but. Michael Moore did
something positive for the community, but
there are jerks who all love to diss him
because he's not racist, he's not
homophobic, and most of all, he's not a
Republican. He's a humble man with a humble
heart who tried to prove to the world that
northern Michigan cares about people who
aren't white, Christian, nor straight. I
hope that he can keep the State running and
keep it as a place where one can keep seeing
good movies.
The world
needs people who make people want to come to
northern Michigan, not avoid it.
