"COCHRAN" GARDEN: The radio cat with nine lives -- KSD (93.7 FM)'s J.C. Corcoran -- got his litter box tossed outside yet again last Thursday by KSD general manager Lee Clear. He was sent packing suddenly after his morning shift at the station and will be free to work at any station that will have him when his contract expires at year's end. KSD apparently wanted to avoid the debacle of an agitated jock assaulting the station on-air for not renewing his contract, or "accidentally" saying the word "fuck" again during a broadcast. The twist to this oft-told tale, however, was the anonymous fax received here at the RFT on Monday morning. "Hey, I know you hate Cochran," the fax began, "but this is pretty funny." The unknown faxer then proceeded to offer all manner of insider station gossip relating to "Cochran," noting that "everyone at the station was real surprised he didn't act like he cared at all" and confiding that "I hear he may have something already." Though the mystery fax source can't spell the jock's name, he/she just happened to have the latest ratings info for the 25-54 demographic (6-10 a.m.) available to paste onto the missive. The send-off line was "Love your column," followed by 13 exclamation points. My educated guess? I hope the faxer can find work spinning records, because he/she can't spin a media critic worth a damn. (RB)
PERKEL-ATING IN THE BIBLE BELT: Some interesting election results from Springfield, Mo., the buckle of the Bible Belt. Looks as though that area's Democratic candidate for Congress, Marc Perkel, walked away from the general election with a full 24 percent of the vote. Interesting. Especially because at Perkel's home Web page he describes himself as an "arrogant, opinionated geek with a hippie background" who's a "fat, middle-aged nerd." Perkel then goes on to list his many qualifications: supreme commander of the Nerd Liberation Movement; creator of the Female Escorts Web ring; member of both the Republican and Democratic parties; founder of the Church of Reality ("I believe the Earth is round and that it orbits the sun...."); and self-elected collector of new jokes he says Al Gore will need to win in 2000 (Old Joke -- Al Gore is so dull that his Secret Service code name is "Al Gore." New Joke -- Al Gore is so dull that his secret service code name is "Bob Dole.") Perkel wants Gore to win, by the way, because he's such a "nerd." (MR)
HUNG CURVE: OK, send another St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Mark McGwire softball across the media critic's strike zone. In last week's National League Most Valuable Player balloting (won by Chicago Cub outfielder Sammy Sosa), the only two writers who tagged McGwire at No. 1 on their MVP ballots were Rick Hummel and Mike Eisenbath of the P-D. It's almost as if there was an organized conspiracy among NL baseball writers to publicly hang their St. Louis colleagues out to dry as the McGwire lapdogs that they were all season. Maybe Oliver Stone could make a film version, entitled Mac70. (RB)
Contributors: Jeannette Batz, Richard Byrne, Melinda Roth
