An update on BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show for 2022

People have been asking, “BZ, what happened to your radio show? You used to be on three times a week (Wednesday included, with the SHAT Show), then twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday nights), then now — perhaps once a week, if that.”

In fact, I was entirely gone for three months. More.

The answer to “what happened” is: change.

A metric assload of change.

The same kind of change that has affected you all individually, your family, your business, your work, your entertainment, your restaurants, your stores, every bit of your life. Ever since late 2019, all of 2020, and all of 2021. And likely every bit of 2022. Because this crap is far from over.

I’m certainly no different, and neither is the SHR Media Network.

Shaun Lewis, at the final SHR Media Network studio in downtown Sacramento, with the new Arrakis board and Shure SM7B microphone, in 2018.

The two original owners and creators of the SHR Media Network are no longer involved. Shaun Lewis experienced a life-changing event which devastated his life, as did various knee injuries requiring surgeries. Moreover, SHR had to leave its studio because the owner was going to sell the house in which it existed — in the hot Sacramento housing market.

Sack Heads Clint (right), the other SHR Media owner, found himself wrapped up in work and had no time whatsoever for SHR, with the last SHAT Show — which was his last appearance whatsoever on radio — occurring on February 26th of 2020.

BZ and CLINT on the SHAT Show, in the original SHR studio.

I make this unequivocal statement: Shaun and Clint are never coming back to the SHR Media Network. We’ve spoken numerous times. It’s not going to happen. I’m still having a bit of difficulty dealing with that, quite honestly.

Making me — the interloper, the greenhorn, the luggage-carrier, the “new guy” from 2016 who only got a show in January of 2017 — now responsible for the future of the media network that Shaun and Clint themselves created.

CLINT, BZ and SHAUN in the original SHR Media Network studio.

So I had a choice.

I could either crash the network, kill it, gut it, rip it out by its roots — or I could try my best to continue SHR.

I’ve decided to try to continue SHR to the best of my abilities, whilst simultaneously recognizing the hard work accomplished by both Shaun and Clint.

First, I was thinking of changing the name entirely — to BZN.

Or I was considering taking a hiatus from internet radio.

Or I could simply build on what Shaun and Clint had started back in 2012, ten years ago.

That turned out to be my preferred course. Because I want to honor Shaun and Clint, then attempt to strengthen and escalate what they created, if I can.

There are, naturally, a number of hurdles in my way. The primary challenge is the technology required. I’m not called a Techno Luddite for nothing — though I am light years ahead of Clint, who is 175 years my junior.

I come from analog radio where, at least in Kalifornia, the Sparta Corporation ruled the day, as did turntables, VU meters, pots, reel-to-reel tape machines, metal editing blocks for tape, razor blades for editing, cart machines, terrestrial radio, a soundproofed editing room, custom boards, and radio stations beginning with either K or W.

Sparta Electronics Corporation radio console mixer. I found Sparta equipment almost everywhere I went in 70s terrestrial radio, except at KFBK, which had its own custom-built board.

Custom, bespoke KFBK board in the 1970s, with Joyce Krieg. Cart machines sitting on top of the board.

Same board, with announcer Ron Lyons at KFBK-AM. I worked with Ron Lyons at KFBK in the 1970s, before he went back to San Francisco with KNBR and then KCBS. Note the mic, an early version of the Shure SM7B, the five cart machines on top, master VU meter in the middle, and the cart rack storage at right.

KFBK promo for the morning drive Ron Lyons show.

This is how AM radio used to work in the 1970s, with the talent — in this case, Donald Rose of 610 KFRC in San Francisco — in an announce booth, and the engineer or producer in another, running the cart machines, tape decks, mics, and everything else. Look at all the carts in the revolving cart racks, and the multiple cart machines required for the show.

Don Rose’s KFRC engineer, Steven Rude. Note the complexity of the board, the window, cart decks, multiple carts. This was everything but simple.

Without a good engineer or producer, you’re toast. Oh, right. BZ has no producer.

So this “everything is digital now” thingie is kind of confusing for an Analog Guy in a Digital World.

But wait. There’s more.

The SHR Media Network left the downtown studio and found itself plunked down into the living room of my wife’s house in South Sacramento. There, the internet, if you can call it that, “provided by” Frontier, runs at this speed.

No. In January of 2022, I’m not kidding. You can get faster speeds by either dial-up — or two tin cans connected by string.

Frontier’s explanation is simply this: you live in an old neighborhood in a predominantly copper wire based area where the chances of us performing upgrades are twofold: slim and none. Why? Because most of the people there can’t afford really good internet anyway, so screw ’em.

Oh sure. We’re upgrading like crazy in new neighborhoods. Because those houses are at least $750,000 homes. But in yours? Nah.

So on Thursday, June 10th, 2021, Shaun and I moved the SHR studio from downtown. Shaun set the whole thing up in about two hours.

Shaun did his job, but Frontier couldn’t care less about doing its job, so I could no longer run streaming video of the show. Audio only. And audio only on a good day when Frontier deigns to not dump the audio stream — either entirely, or, off and on during the show itself.

Necessitating my having to chop up the show into two or three or four separate pieces, with lots of show missing in between. I’ve done that. You can see the posts.

But wait. There’s more.

I’m not staying in Kalifornia. Thank God.

In fact, I’ve already purchased a house in a free state (with a very soon-to-be-coveted 2.1% APR) where permitless concealed carry is lawful. And everyone hates Kalifornians. For obvious reasons.

The driveway of BZ’s new house, in the first days of winter, 2021.

Which means that I have to move the studio again. From downtown Sacramento, to South Sacramento, to the free state, about 950+ miles away.

This is something I hope to have accomplished by the end of January or February. Crossed phalanges. Frankly, it all depends on the ability of a moving truck to surmount the five mountain passes between Sacramento, Kalifornia, and New Town, Free State, a great distance, in winter.

Within that new house, I will have fiber-optic. Connections will not be an issue. But, because BZ is still a Techno Luddite, and there is no such thing as a Shaun nearby, BZ will have to figure out the initial connections.

So for a while, you can bank on the show being audio only.

Until either Shaun, Allen Thomas, Jack Alexander, Jeremy Hanson, or some other kind of “deus ex machina” comes down from on high and hooks me up to audio and back to live video streaming via xSplit — or perhaps even Streamyard, vMix, or OBS Studio, I’ll have to figure that out also.

Then, of course, I’ll have to find a live streaming host that won’t kill me because I’m politically Conservative. I won’t do podcasts or stale shows. I want to be LIVE at the time I broadcast. I can post the shows as podcasts later.

You can bet I’m never streaming live on either YouTube or Facebook again. At this point I’m looking into either BitChute or Rumble for live streaming. If you have suggestions, let me know.

Arrakis mixer on left, with BZ’s gorgeous Electro-Voice RE20 microphone.

Then I’m going to have to figure out if I wish to continue working with my Arrakis ARC Talk 8 Blue mixer, or hook up the Rode Rodecaster Pro I have sitting nearby in a box.

Rodecaster Pro mixer. Will it work for The Saloon if I do audio and video?

That’s a story for another day.

But I’m faced with another dilemma. I will no longer want to be associated with the state of Kalifornia, so I’m trying to figure out if I want to start a sub-network to SHR. Something similar to this, in order to celebrate the freedom aspect of the network.

I’m on the edge with regard to this. Do it or not?

My New Year’s Resolution for the network is this:

Ideally, my goal is to bring BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show back to two, two-hour shows per week, on Tuesday and Thursday nights — just like I was doing since January of 2017.

I was even toying with the idea of increasing the frequency of the show, from two nights a week to four or five nights a week — making it a one hour instead of a two hour show.

I’d also like to bring back the SHAT Show, on Wednesday night again — with a rotation of co-hosts — until I find one that works with me as smoothly as possible, as “Clint-like” as possible.

Maybe that combination will never occur again; but I’d certainly like to try.

I don’t think Money Talk With Melanie will return to SHR, because Melanie Collette is finding success on Newsmax TV — but I believe I’ll be able to keep The Wright Way with Shannon and Mike, Dave Milner, Southern Sense, The Liberty Cast with Earl Jackson, and perhaps even expand our hosts.

I very much would like to expand the SHR shows with more great hosts — perhaps with an eye to enticing LONNIE POINDEXTER to return, as well as RALPH J CHITTAMS and JEFF DUNETZ — if we can figure out more technology.

2020 was a huge challenge. 2021 as well. And I readily admit that I found myself massively distracted in 2021, didn’t keep my eye on the SHR ball, because of losing the downtown Sacramento studio, the problems I encountered with the South Sacramento studio, selling my house, purchasing another house in a free state, and wrangling the sale and cleanup of my wife’s house.

To everyone on SHR, for that I apologize. Life. It happens.

But once moved to my new digs, once my studio is up and running in a room entirely devoted to it, and once I get a grip on the various technological aspects of running an internet radio network in 2022 — I hope to bring consistency and even more excellence back to the SHR Media Network, such that people can count on shows, count on quality, and count on great guests and information.

My life is like your life — turned upside down, challenged, fairly uncertain, all the while trying to remain Semper Gumby. Not always possible.

But now you know my goals.

Now let’s see if I can achieve them.

God bless you all, and thanks for listening to the SHR Media Network, Conservative Media Done Right.

BZ

 

 

BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Thursday, 11-14-19, where it’s “Tomorrow’s News Today” with JACK ALEXANDER

Featuring Right thinking from a left brain, doing the job the American Media Maggots won’t, embracing ubiquitous, sagacious perspicacity and broadcasting behind enemy lines in Occupied Fornicalia from the veritable Belly of the Beast, the Bill Mill in Sacramento, Fornicalia, I continue to proffer my thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to utilize their studio and hijack their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursday nights, thanks to my shameless contract — as well as appear on the Sack Heads: Against Tyranny Show every Wednesday night.

Hour 1BZ talked about his Facebook page being hacked, as well as Facebook having throttled his reach due to “climate change falsehoods.” Then JACK ALEXANDER of the JACK ALEXANDER EXPERIMENT entered the show where BZ revealed the time-traveling nature of “Tomorrow’s News Today.”

We both then talked about the abrogations of social media in general, the First Amendment-removing bastards and bastardettes, the constant hounding and censorship or removal of Conservative content altogether.

Hour 2BZ gave JACK ALEXANDER the choice of the second hour topic, and he chose BEST MOVIE VILLAINS — whereupon we talked about various films, bad guys and took phone calls from listeners.

VOTE RED IN NOVEMBER 2020.

If you want to listen to the show on Spreaker, audio only, click on the yellow button below.

Listen to “BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Thursday, 11-14-19” on Spreaker.

Join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin (on Twitter @BZep, on Facebook as Biff Zeppe and the Bloviating Zeppelin, and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the booze is not.

As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening later via podcast.

Please remember we only monitor the chat room at SHRMEDIA.COM — though there is chat available on both Facebook and YouTube. Come on over to the SHR chat room where you’ll meet great friends!

  • Want to listen to all the Berserk Bobcat Saloon archives on SpreakerGo here.
  • Want to listen to the Saloon on iHeart radio? Click here.
  • Like Apple products? You can listen to the Saloon here on Apple Podcasts.
  • Want to listen to the show on the huge Podcast AddictClick on this.
  • Do you like Spotify? You can listen to the Saloon via Spotify right here.
  • Want to watch past shows on PeriscopeGo here.
  • Want to watch past shows on the SHR Media Facebook page? Go here.
  • Want to watch past Berserk Bobcat Saloon shows on YouTubeGo here.

Thank you one and all for listening, watching and supporting the SHR Media Network: “Conservative Media Done Right.”

BZ

 

Goodbye to the Sack Heads Radio Show

Sack Heads BZ, Clint and Shaun.

Wednesday night (4-4-18) was the last broadcast of the Sack Heads Radio Show as we know it. And it came out of thin air at the last moment, totally unexpected. Sack Heads Shaun wasn’t prepared either. I got the call from him on Monday, April 2nd. Because of unforeseen complications, his schedule was now such that he would no longer be able to participate in the Sack Heads Radio Show on Wednesday nights.

He was gobsmacked. I was gobsmacked. Clint was gobsmacked. Gobs were gobsmacked. We went through the stages of the Kubler-Ross Grief Cycle.

First there was denial, then anger, then bargaining. Shaun and I tried to bargain the fuck out of the situation, but it just wasn’t workable. We’re both kinda depressed right now. Give it time; we’ll hit acceptance. Time wounds all heels.

You know how you go through stages in life where the bear opens your lunchbox and just shits right on your sandwich? That’s been Shaun recently and myself as well, but for vastly different reasons. Just when you think you’ve hosed it out, poured bleach all over the damned thing, rinsed it thoroughly, let it sit in the sun to dry and then made another sandwich?

Yeah. The bear opens your lunchbox and shits on the sandwich again.

Too scatological for you? Hold that thought and keep reading.

It makes me sad, but perhaps not in the way you’re thinking.

I retired in 2016. Since then I’ve had a bit of difficulty in retirement, having gone from the Type A job I possessed in law enforcement to, the next day, completely irrelevant. In my mind. I met Sack Heads Shaun on Twitter and explored the possibility of getting my own radio show on their air. Shaun and I met at the Starbucks on Stockton Boulevard to discuss the situation and, after the meeting, I noticed I had a parking ticket on my windshield. Fucking City of Sacramento.

This was an opportunity to get back into radio because, decades before, I had worked in terrestrial radio for KFBK AM and FM, KERS, KEG, KNDE, KOBO as well as WWSU and WING back east. Those were the days of Sparta boards, Sparta turntables, Sparta cart decks, Ampex reel-to-reel tape machines and sound editing where you physically cut tape on horizontal metal editing bars in either a block or diagonal cut with a razor blade. And white editing tape. No. I’m not kidding.

After the meeting, Shaun was kind enough to invite me on the June 22nd, 2016 Sack Heads Radio Show. That was my very first appearance. He warned me about Clint, though. “I think he’ll be good with this. I’m not entirely sure. But I think so.” My. That was reassuring.

In truth they were both welcoming and I soon became a staple on the Sack Heads. It wasn’t until I carried their luggage at the July 2016 Freedom Fest in Las Vegas that they began to realize: “hey, this old fat fart is for real. He really does want to be on our network.” They flew to Las Vegas. I drove to Las Vegas with all their equipment in the back of my Kraut Kar SUV.

Like a bad tick that was dangerously embedded they finally realized I wasn’t going away. And that I would yield actual physical labor for them. I didn’t produce my first show on the SHR Media Network until Tuesday, January 17th of 2017.

Since then both Shaun and Clint have garnered not only my everlasting thanks but my undying loyalty as well. Providing me with an outlet to vent — as I’d been writing a Conservative political blog since 2004 at BloviatingZeppelin.net — this became the perfect confluence of diversion, application, concentration and, truly, therapy. Here were two guys with similar backgrounds to mine and whose Conservative philosophies happened to mirror mine as well.

That said, I’ll have to make my own personal revelation. They happened to save me. I was rudderless and searching for anything solid in tumultuous seas the likes of which I’d never before navigated. Irrelevance was a status I’d never yet experienced. And yet irrelevant I was. In the course of one day.

Turn in your badge, turn in your gun, give us your shit, you’re out.

But the Sack Heads centered me. They gave me something to look forward to. They managed to provide some personal dignity and relevancy. It felt like I’d really found a new home with some very good new friends. And for that I shall never forget their kindness.

The Sack Heads rescued me.

That, frankly, is why not having the Sack Heads Radio Show to look forward to every Wednesday night leaves a chunk taken out of my heart. It really is painful.

Yes, I know, Shaun isn’t really going anywhere, all of that. But haven’t you been in a situation where just the presence of someone or something was comforting in and of itself and immediately jarring and destabilizing when, suddenly, it’s no longer there?

Me too.

At the beginning of the show we provided a moment of silence for the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

Sack Heads Shaun and Clint then talked about the inception of their show, how it managed to grow, how the SHR Media Network was born and how it led to any number of associations and friendships with persons too numerous to mention.

  • Dan Butcher called into the show with Sack Heads memories and thanks.
  • Jeff Dunetz called into the show with Sack Heads memories and thanks.
  • Jersey Joe Antrobus called into the show with Sack Heads memories and thanks.
  • As did Ken McClenton, with Sack Heads memories and thanks.

If you want to listen to the farewell show in Spreaker, click on the yellow button to the upper left.

Listen to “Sack Heads Radio Show, Wednesday, 4-4-2016” on Spreaker.

If you want to watch the show on the SHR Media YouTube channel, click on the red arrow below.

If you want to watch the show on the SHR Media Facebook page, please click here.

Due of various scheduling issues Shaun had to step away from the Sack Heads Radio Show. And frankly, it’s not really Sack Heads without Shaun. Which is why the show had to cease.

And why there is a replacement — at least until Shaun can somehow rectify his situation. Because, after all, Shaun and Clint worked long and hard to build up a significant Wednesday night audience. They decided they didn’t want to let that audience wither and blow away.

That’s where Sack Heads AGAINST TYRANNY comes in.

Every Wednesday night in the same time slot, 8 PM Pacific and 11 PM Eastern, live and direct from the SHR Media Network studios, comes the Sack Heads AGAINST TYRANNY Show with Sack Heads Clint and Sack Heads BZ.

And it begins next week.

The Sack Heads Radio Show is dead; long live the Sack Heads Radio Show.

The next iteration?

It really is a SHAT show.

 

BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Thursday, 4-5-18 with guest JERSEY JOE

Featuring Right thinking from a left brain, doing the job the American Media Maggots won’t, embracing ubiquitous, sagacious perspicacity and broadcasting behind enemy lines in Occupied Fornicalia from the veritable Belly of the Beast, the Bill Mill in Sacramento, Fornicalia, I continue to proffer my thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to utilize their studio and hijack their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, thanks to my shameless contract — as well as appear on the Sack Heads: Against Tyranny Show every Wednesday night.

Tonight BZ spoke to the inimitable Jersey Joe, he of Reaver of Common Sense fame. Though he’s put his show on hiatus, he’s still working his butt off at woodworking, where his materials and products can be found at ANTROBUS.ONE. While I’m in a pitching mood, I should refer you also to Joe’s site REAVER.ONE where you can find custom paracord bracelets created by Jersey Joe himself. BZ has one — a Thin Blue Line version — and has worn it consistently since its purchase.

Of course, I couldn’t help but talk about the passing of an era, the cessation of the Sack Heads Radio Show. Joe and I both weighed in on the topic of retirement and how something as apparently simple as that can be not precisely the life-affirming event one had hoped. Trust me: retirement affects everyone quite differently.

After that? Politics, of course.

If you care to listen to the show in Spreaker, please click on the yellow start button at the upper left.

Listen to “BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Thursday, 4-5-18” on Spreaker.

If you care to watch the show on the SHR Media Facebook page (in glorious color), click right here. Please LIKE us on Facebook.

Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin (on Twitter @BZep, Facebook as Biff Zeppe and the Bloviating Zeppelin, and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.

Special thanks again to Jersey Joe for staying up so late to chat here in the Saloon! It makes me wonder: do I ever talk to anyone who lives on the west coast? Seldom.

As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening later via podcast.

As a replacement to the Sack Heads Radio Show is the new Sack Heads: Against Tyranny Show, same bat time, same bat channel — every Wednesday night at 8 PM Pacific, 11 PM Eastern, and 19:83 and 847.723 seconds in Bolivia.

This show will rail against tyranny levied against the right, Conservatives, the GOP and common sense. You can find the show on Twitter @2againsttyranny. It truly will be a SHAT Show.

A continuing word about the chat room (see the newly-renovated chat room, above, splendiferously resplendent in its fine Corinthian leather and custom 500-gallon salt water aquarium): I can only monitor the SHRMEDIA.COM chat though there is chat available on both Facebook and YouTube. If you wish to interact with myself and the bulk of the chatters, I heartily recommend and invite you the SHR Media page for complete and utter satisfaction or your money back. Only a slight 92% restocking fee involved. Offer not valid in Bolivia or on Zephron.

  • Want to listen to all the Berserk Bobcat Saloon archives in podcast? Go here.
  • Want to watch the show live on Facebook? Go to the SHR Media page on Facebook here.
  • Want to watch past Berserk Bobcat Saloon shows on YouTube? Go here.
  • Want to watch the show on High Plains TV? Go here.

Thank you one and all for listening, watching and supporting the SHR Media Network: “Conservative Media Done Right.”

BZ

 

BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Tuesday, 3-13-18, with Reverend Ralph J Chittams, Sr.

Featuring Right thinking from a left brain, doing the job the American Media Maggots won’t, embracing ubiquitous, sagacious perspicacity and broadcasting behind enemy lines in Occupied Fornicalia from the veritable Belly of the Beast, the Bill Mill in Sacramento, Fornicalia, I continue to proffer my thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to utilize their studio and hijack their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, thanks to my shameless contract — as well as appear on the Sack Heads Radio Show each Wednesday evening.

Tonight we spoke to Reverend Ralph J. Chittams Sr about the two things everyone says you shouldn’t discuss: religion and politics. Because it’s what I do. And it’s what he does.

If you thought you knew Ralph, well, you’ll find you really didn’t know him all that well. He provides insight into not only his goals and motivations, but for Life as well. Click on the links provided. I think you’ll be surprised and pleased, both at once. Reverend Ralph J Chittams Sr is one remarkable man.

“Their policies will destroy their constituents.”

I wrapped things up with an article by Kurt Schlichter entitled “Seven Terrible Liberal Gun Control Arguments and How To Beat Them,” and an article about a possible coming civil war.

Shh. Quiet. Sack Heads Shaun also made me a wonderful St Patrick’s Day dinner of corned beef and cabbage, which I ate in the studio just before the show.

There, of course, was much more buttery political goodness. You’ll just have to listen and watch for yourself.

If you care to listen to the show in Spreaker, please click on the yellow start button at the upper left.

Listen to “BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Tuesday, 3-13-18” on Spreaker.

If you care to watch the show on the SHR Media Facebook page (in glorious color), please click here. Unfortunately our relationship with YouTube has soured.

Sadly, Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76 yesterday.

Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin (on Twitter @BZep, Facebook as Biff Zeppe and the Bloviating Zeppelin, and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.

As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening later via podcast.

  • Want to listen to all the Berserk Bobcat Saloon archives in podcast? Go here.
  • Want to watch the show live on Facebook? Go to the SHR Media page on Facebook here.
  • Want to watch the show on High Plains TV? Go here.

Thank you one and all for listening, watching and supporting the SHR Media Network: “Conservative Media Done Right.”

BZ