Why Miranda Lambert Should Win ACM Entertainer Of The Year

Steve's Blog Proudly Presents Our Special Guest Blogger, CBS New York's Erin Duvall. Take it away, Erin!

Why Miranda Lambert Should Win ACM Entertainer Of The Year: She won Female Vocalist of the Year title at the ACM Awards for the sixth consecutive time and saw 'Little Red Wagon' hit the Top 5.

It's Steven Eisenpreis' Appreciation of Garry Shandling

When a fictional character talks directly to the audience, it's known as "breaking the fourth wall," referring to the unseen wall that separates fantasy from reality. Garry Emanuel Shandling didn't just break the fourth wall...He OBLITERATED it.

Garry was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1949 before moving to Tuscon, Arizona so his older brother could be treated for cystic fibrosis.When Garry graduated from Palo Verde High School, he attended the University of Arizona where he pursued a year of postgraduate studies in creative writing.In 1973, he moved to Los Angeles where he sold a script to the popular situation comedy SANFORD & SON. He also wrote for WELCOME BACK KOTTER and attended a story meeting for THREE'S COMPANY, but, frustated by the formulaic writing of sitcoms, he performed his first stand-up at Mitzi Shore's Comedy Store in 1976, where he was the only comic who didn't go "on strike" to protest the Comedy Store's policy of not paying comics, which convinced Mitzi to give him a regular gig. In 1981, he became a regular fill-in for Johnny Carson on NBC's TONIGHT SHOW until 1987 when he premiered IT'S GARRY SHANDLING'S SHOW on Showtime.

GARRY'S SHOW(co-created by SNL writer Alan Zweibel) took off on everything Garry hated about sitcoms but won four CableACE awards and a Television Critics Award for outstanding comedy show. In short, the show was conceived as a sitcom that knew it was a sitcom, but it went on to be one of the masterworks of the genre.

In 1992, Garry moved to HBO where he created THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW, a program that took everything he knew about latenight talk shows, turned it on its head and poked fun at it. He had to turn down offers from NBC and CBS to keep doing LARRY, and he also did stand-up specials for HBO and SHO.

He also wrote and starred in the movie WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? and was an active member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (having appeared in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER and the upcoming CAP: CIVIL WARS) as well as his voiceover work in movies such as DreamWorks' OVER THE HEDGE.

He will be remembered for his put-upon, distracted persona and his "average Joe" style. 

On March 24,2016, he noticed he had all the signs of a heart attack. He called 911 to report a health emergency, but when he lost the ability to speak, the Los Angeles Police Department traced the call to his residence in the Hollywood Hills, and rushed him to the hospital, where he left the stage for the last time. 

Sure, George Burns, Bugs Bunny, and others talked to the audience before Garry came along, but he turned it into even more of an art form than it had ever been. I give the last word to Garry's Larry Sanders persona on his last show, after he ran out of reasons for his listeners to not "touch that dial:"

"NOW you can flip."

Steve

Scott Shannon Is Rejoining The Z-Morning Zoo On April 1st

And that's NO April Foolin'. (For one thing, this post is reaching you BEFORE April Fool's Day, and for another, this is not a joke. Scott gave up on April Fool's jokes after he told the listeners he was moving to L.A. to play country music and he got calls saying, "DON'T GO! DON'T GO!")

On April 1st, Scott Shannon and his current morning crew on the WCBS-FM 101. 1 Big Show (Patty Steele, Joe Nolan, John Elliot, Louie Louie Pulice and Kermit the Wonder Frog) will welcome the original Z100 (WHTZ) Morning Zoo crew of Ross Brittain, Claire Stevens, Jonathan B.Bell and Captain Kevin Smith. (They might even get a phone call from Assistant Public Service Director, Part Time Editorialist, and Full Time Lime Green Lovin' Machine, Mr. Leonard!)Whether you were a Z100 listener anytime between August 2,1983 (when the station signed on) and July 1989 (when Scott left for L.A. to start Pirate Radio 100.3 FM KQLZ), or you just want to hear the biggest hits of the Awesome 80's the way they were originally played on the radio, make sure your radio is locked on 101.1 FM on April 1st between 6 and 10 (As they used to say, "LOCK IT IN! AND RIP THE KNOB OFF!"), or, if you're outside the New York Tri-State Area, make sure your desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone has the Radio.com app for four hot-rockin', flame-throwin', butt-kickin' hours of radio at its best, or better yet, log on to http://www.wcbsfm.com, http://www,facebook.com/ScottShannonWCBSFM or http://www.twitter.com/ScottShannonCBS to find out how you can join the party LIVE and IN PERSON!

I have had the pleasure to know Scott since he signed on the air in New York. In all the time since he won over the toughest media market in America, people have come and gone, formats and technologies have changed,but one thing has always stayed and will always stay the same: Michael Scott Shannon will always be on the air to give New Yorkers, to paraphrase a certain sailor man, a musical "edjamakayshkun!" Keep it hot, Scott!

Steve out!