I'm listening to the Final Four right now on Westwood One, and it serves to rehash a blog entry from last week. I love radio.

Some 26 years ago, I recall listening to the great John Brooks, who I have since met at KOCO informally, call an OU win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl. I didn't own a TV as a kid until I was about 12, so I was left to my radio most of the time because when I was growing up, the man of the house dominated the TV -- not the kids.

That means we watched OETA. Like, all the time. That's terrific because now I love OETA and public television, as well as public radio.

Nowadays, parents give up control of the boob tube so their kids can watch what they want in hopes that they'll stay quiet long enough to keep their parents sane.

I say let 'em have the TV. I'm enjoying Florida-UCLA much more listening to Kevin Harlan, John Thompson and Bill Raftery than I would have if I had watched it. There is much more left to the imagination, much better analysis from the announcers and greater anticipation. It's not quite as passive as television, which I also appreciate.

The reason I'm not watching it, from a practical perspective, is because I have a ton of things to get done on weekends. I've found that the older I get, the better I have to manage my time.

A colleague at work was talking about her recent trip to a professional event when the mentor told the young professionals to beware of bosses who treat married folk better than singles, presuming that singles have no life while married people do. It's a premise that practically enrages me because it's completely illogical.

By "having no life," the premise of this discussion was that married people have a ton of things to do while single people can coast. The premise is not that there aren't positives to marriage; that clearly is true.

But, if you're going to be a single person and maintain an operational household, a social life, etc., you're going to have to manage your time way better than your married friends. Why? Shared labor. Simple as that.

A married couple does not make twice the mess of a single person, only about one and a quarter to one and a half times the mess, I'd guess. While married couples often have two cars and definitely two loads of clothes, they still share one space and one yard and one set of bills (most of the time).

I didn't have a role in this conversation the other day. I merely listened. Heck, I didn't really have that much of an opinion because I have never felt like any of my bosses treated me any differently than they did married persons. However, it served to remind me that I'm so independent at this point that I almost yearn a bit for the ability to be a bum. It is still a giant stressor for me to be disorganized and not on top of things. It happens often, but the older I get, the less I can allow it because frankly I need to avoid stress the older I get.

Speaking of stress, the past couple of days we've had mega storms in the Oklahoma City area, which meant that I worked like 15 hours each day. I manage a Web site that delivers news to Oklahomans, providing them print and video coverage of severe storms in the metro area.

By the time I got home Friday night (Saturday morning), I wound down until about 2:30 a.m. and slept until past noon. Considering I only get about six and a half hours of sleep each weeknight, I really need my weekend sleep. Whoever says you can't catch up on sleep is probably somebody who gets nine hours of zzz's every night. However, I'd love to be able to get just eight hours of sleep each night.

Alas, it's kind of difficult because I'm taking care of things that I should have done on the weekend. Time management is a pretty big deal to me, given not only my virgo nature but also my desire for organization and routine. I like order and structure, and while I am also quite spontaneous socially, I can't afford to be that way without maintaining a certain level of order and structure about 90 percent of the time.

It's another way in which listening to sports on the radio makes it such that I can keep up with games and get my stuff done. With television, I feel the physical need to stare at the tube because the analysis and play-by-play is done presuming I am watching. Radio is theatre of the mind, and I love it.

Gotta go clean the kitchen. See, I don't have a wife whose job it is to do that.

Kidding.

There are hundreds of Idol post-mortem articles written, in which the author expresses a sentiment not of sympathy for eliminated AI contestants but of eager anticipation of the individual's next career move.

However, when Chris Sligh was eliminated on Wednesday, finishing a disappointing 10th after being pegged early on as a possible Season 6 winner, I felt sorry for the 28-year-old Greenville, S.C. native.

Those of you who have watched Season 6 know that Sligh kind of ventured from sarcastic and witty and highly original to sort of survivalist -- not trying to be too smarmy, trying to work his way into the Idol mold for the sake of adhering to some sort of strategy that, perhaps, he thought would win him the competition.

The minute that he deigned to tangle with Simon Cowell some five or six weeks ago and was counterteased for his tubbiness, Sligh sort of tucked his turtle head into his turtle shell, signalling -- I think -- the beginning of his end on Idol.

Where he truly went wrong on the show, besides the fact that he has a disturbing lack of rhythm for somebody who fronts a band (although I've seen old videos of Black Sabbath, and Ozzy had none either), is that Chris really thought there was a strategy to winning. Like it's Survivor or The Apprentice, and really it's the furthest thing from either.

The most talented performer wins this show. Period.

Not the most talented singer. Not the most talented songwriter. Not the most talented musician. Not anything but the dude or chick who gets up and wows the crowd.

Unfortunately for Sligh, he truly had the potential to do that and just never went balls-out, which I think he had the ability to do.

However, Sligh really is one of the better dudes, as in life, this show has ever featured. I spent quite a bit of time reading this guy's blog, reading his original writing and listening to Half Past Forever, a band I think could be very, very successful commercially.

He has demonstrated very solid songwriting chops on tunes like "Know," which frankly is one of the better AC pop tunes I've heard this year. He can play instruments, and really his voice by itself is terrific. However, I don't think everybody is meant to be a solo artist.

I think Chris' musical calling is with a band of some sort, perhaps HPF, or as a songwriter, which frankly is more lucrative financially (if successful) than being an artist. Who knows what he wants to do; however, for future contestants of Chris' ilk and experience, they should remember that this show is about performance, period.

Not image. Not look. Not strategy. Performance.

Perhaps I'm wrong but I really think any insecurity Chris might have had in the years he had been honing his craft came to light the minute Simon and he got into it on national TV, however innocuous it was. I think that because Sligh was never the same on the show.

Typically, I don't delve too much into religion on this blog; however, I admire his devotion to God significantly. I've read quite a bit about his church in South Carolina and the folks who tagged along with him to L.A., however briefly.

I'm not sure why I even bring that up, except to illustrate why I kind of connected with him as a contestant early on. Good people with mega talent appeal to me, and I think it's because I've known so many people with buckets of talent who were either buttheads or didn't have their lives together. Perhaps, that's reflective of my musical trek all these years.

It was clear in the end though that he was overmatched not by any of the other guys, who are all honestly average to terrible, but by four of the remaining women.

Seriously. Gina Glocksen needs to lose the boyfriend. I kid.

But whether it's 10th or 5th, Chris is on the tour. He's known. Mission accomplished, and he's not tied to a 19 Entertainment label, meaning Half Past Forever and his songwriting career has a chance ...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Whether it's music or business, I respect anybody who can write competently, and Sligh is probably the most proven, talented songwriter, for my taste, the show has produced.

He should consider it an open invitation or request, on my behalf, to collaborate in the future.

While American Idol Season 6 is fast becoming the Melinda Doolittle highlight show, it's no guarantee she'd be a commercial success. All one has to do is look at Taylor Hicks' reign as Idol champ to realize that popularity on the show means little in the real world.

On the other hand, Daughtry is poised to end the year with the best-selling CD, just a year or so removed from Carrie Underwood's quintuple-platinum effort.

In an industry full of falling figures, Idol has produced the commercial cash cows of the past two fiscal years and, really, three of the past five if one considers Kelly Clarkson's enormous success.

Nevertheless, Idol is equally known for its bombs.

Taylor Hicks. Bo Bice. Tamyra Gray. Justin Guarini. Diana DeGarmo.

To be fair to both Gray, whose album was really good, and DeGarmo, whose wasn't, both Idol alums were never born for commercial success. They were born for the Broadway stage. When one considers the success that Jennifer Hudson has had on the silver screen, not to mention Fantasia's upcoming stage debut in "The Color Purple," it could be said that Idol's reach goes beyond CDs in terms of how we should evaluate the success of the show's contestants.

However, watching Melinda Doolittle tonight, I'm not convinced she'll be a commercial success in anything other than gospel. Heck, it works for the Winans, for Smokie Norful, and they all make terrific albums, even if they're not mega-billionaires, selling 5 million CDs each.

On the other hand, I do think Jordin Sparks and Gina Glocksen could transform into multi-platinum solo artists with the right team. There's no guarantee either singer will survive long enough to get the appropriate exposure required to start the Idol machine, but they're young, talented and all about today.

Melinda is great, but she's an old soul. A brilliant singer who might only appeal commercially to a thirtysomething, fortysomething crowd. Just a hunch on my part.

Hey, our money spends like anybody else's, right?

Yes, however, we don't spend our disposable money on music unless it's great. Younger folks will dole out $17.99 on just about anything.

Given that the industry that markets to younger folks is way more about image than anything else, I'd say that the music business shouldn't be surprised if Doolittle eventually disappoints while Glocksen and Sparks end up the commercial class of Season 6.

1. I am so ready for baseball season. Got the fantasy baseball league set up, complete with participation from JN, Keith, the brothers and more. My buddy Keith also has the MLB.tv audio package, for which he has graciously let me use the username/password. I think I did the same for him last year or the year before.

I actually love baseball audio, on the AM even. I can work, write, do whatever while it's on. Baseball is full of minutiae. It moves at the pace of an Enya album. It's graceful, and the side conversations are the kind one would have at a diner over a piece of pie and a cup of coffee.

2. No surprise that the Oklahoma women's basketball team lost this weekend to Mississippi. Sheri Coale has had some real trouble in the Sweet 16, but I knew the Rebels would be trouble as soon as I saw them singing a gospel song together in the locker room before the game. I literally thought, "Holy sh%t. They're to-geth-er."

Like baseball, listening to women's basketball -- actually listening to most OU sports -- is better on the radio. Color me old school. The boob tube is overrated.

3. I've read two books in two weeks. This has to be a freaking record for me, in terms of pace. Credit the red room, my palatial reading space, complete with a plush red recliner. I plan to attack Aldous Huxley, some more Faulkner, the last half of James Frey's controversial memoir and more over the next few weeks.

4. "Dancing With The Stars" is way better this season than last. Don't know why. Perhaps I just like the contestants better. Perhaps the fact that they're adhering to the rules of these dances instead of just doing what they want appeals to the structure/order-loving Virgo in me.

My favorite after two performances? I'd say that Apolo, Laila, Joey, Ian and even Heather Mills are among my favorites. I'd say that folks should not be surprised if Ms. Mills with her prosthetic limb wins the whole thing. If I'm betting though, I'll say Laila and Joey are in the finale.

5. Just 3.5 more months until "Big Brother 8."

6. My yard is three times as green as it was last year at this time. Of course, my hideous yard-upkeep didn't help. I'm a new man this year though. Even if it's just weeds, I'm going to care for the ol' yard as if I owned the place.

7. I still have to do taxes, and I'm dreading it so much. I will owe this year, big time.

8. Amy Winehouse, who I have been yapping about for weeks, apparently set an American record for the highest Billboard 200 album debut for any British female solo artist -- ever. "Back To Black" is a brilliant, brilliant CD. Trend-setting, cool and should appeal to the critic as well as the masses. It is an early shoo-in for Album of the Year.

9. Royals are on top of the Padres 4-2 in the bottom of the 6th in the Cactus League. Kansas City and the Texas Rangers (my team) share a spring training complex, but I think they're at the Padres' place, wherever that is. It's Peoria, but is that Peoria, Ariz.?

10. NASCAR is excellent on the radio, too. In fact, again, I think I like it better on the radio than on TV. Perhaps, I'll just sell my TV.

No, wait, can't do that. Idol comes on tomorrow. You know what that means: More Sanjaya.

Quick funny from work today. A colleague says something about somebody looking like Sanjaya's offspring, to which I said, "Uh, Sanjaya will be fathering no children. I'm pretty sure of that ... "

11. Alex Gordon is 0-for-3 tonight with a walk, which means he's actually been to the plate four times. Gotta love the great game.

One of the best singer-songwriters you probably know nothing about is a 25-year-old Texan named Ben Kweller. I've followed the kid's career ever since his hit "Wasted and Ready" about five years ago.

The thing about this new generation of musicians is that they're not only better songwriters than the 80s generation -- by a mile -- but they're also super savvy when it comes to promotion, probably because so little of the musician's dollar is earned these days based on CD sales.

Ben decided to film his 82-year-old grandmother "Bubbie" exercising to his latest single, "Penny on the Train Track." It's so endearing that it has been featured on the front page of YouTube, and the song is so good that it's liable to become his second major hit.

The sound of the tune, the feel of it reminds me of Cat Stevens' work from "Harold & Maude," but then again, Bubbie reminds me of Ruth Gordon.

Ben's filming this in his grandmother's condo gym. It's brilliant, and I just love it when artists get it. I mean, he's written a superior song here, but if nobody hears it, what good is it?

Brilliant, dude. Briliiant. Great song. Really has the yo factor, dawg.

Uh, I did watch Idol tonight, but as far as I'm concerned Melinda Doolittle has this bugger wrapped up. Jordin Sparks is definitely a contender, and Lakisha Jones is a playa. But, the episode was fairly tedious and didn't inspire me to anything.

This song on the other hand. This video. They're just examples that creativity, brilliant creativity, can be ultra-simple, and that in fact, ultra-simplicity is often the way to go. It's really one of the best videos I've ever seen.

For those who say no great new music is being released -- man, you're just not paying attention. With the advent of tools like Rhapsody and the Yahoo Music Engine, not to forget YouTube, more and more promising artists are getting their shot.

One such artist is Britain's Amy Winehouse. I've read about her for some time now, particularly about her issues with booze and her weight. On the outside, some might say she's 23 going on 47, but on the inside, she is a classic soul with unbelievable tone and artistry.

I listened to her latest CD "Back To Black," and while I knew many of the tunes, I finally heard "Tears Dry On Their Own," which uses the Motown classic "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" as its foundation. Let's just say that this might be the single greatest use of a "sample," if you will -- although it's not really, technically a sample -- of all time.

Watching this video, I'm reminded of videos from the 1960s of British soul artists singing on various English TV programs. On one hand, this is a great flashback to an era of wonderful music, and on the other, music fans should be wet at the notion of somebody as talented as Winehouse making records.

I can't encourage you to watch this video enough. She is a jewel.

When people cite their pet peeves, they usually include stuff like despising people who talk on mobile phones in their car or drivers who go too slow in the fast lane.

The pet peeve of a friend of mine from Dallas was when people would toss empty tuna cans into the kitchen trash without wrapping it in foil first to remove the smell.

Smokers are often cited as a source of pain for those outlining their peeves.

TV channel flippers. Bicyclists who choose to exercise their road privileges during rush hour. Messy people. You name it, and everybody has a set of behaviors that sets them off.

I've got them, too. In fact, one of them happened to me today.

In the grocery store, when I am paying for my groceries at the credit card terminal, the person behind me should not be right behind me, like within slapping distance. I am always tempted to tell the person hovering over my shoulder to step the f*** back, but social rules keep me from doing so.

In terms of driving, I pretty much can't stand the whole driving-too-slowly-in-the-fast-lane thing. Folks on cell phones don't bother me as long as their driving is up to par. To me, anything too fast or too slow is an annoyance. However, this isn't my driving pet peeve.

My driving pet peeve is people who will hold up traffic behind them so they can turn left into a parking lot where there is no light. We're forced to wait for them to be able to turn in while oncoming traffic zooms past. The courteous thing to do would be to plan your trip a little better.

Slow walkers. I've got a good friend who will probably think I'm referring to her, but I'm not. She once noted this online group called "Slow Walkers Should Die," and I have to amusedly note that I wouldn't mind being part of that group. The only time this applies, really, is in a crowded area, in which case the rules of walking should really become more like the rules of driving. Stay to the right, and keep up.

In Washington D.C., one of the first unwritten social rules my buddy Jonathan told me about was that, on escalators, you should always stay to the right so that people who didn't want to just stand there and let the machine lift them could dart right up to their destination.

Another big pet peeve of mine is when businesses that have no business asking for tips start requesting gratuity. Baristas at Starbucks have tip jars, and I think to myself, "I just paid $3.87 for a venti Chai Tea Latte. Howard Schultz or whoever owns this place should really pay you a bit better."

I'm going to start noting a few of these things. I suspect that most of what makes the majority crazy in terms of their collective pet peeves don't bother me in the least. However, I have my weirdities, if you will.

***

One of the things I have taken advantage of this weekend that I don't on most is my cool reading room. I put a big recliner in there and just surrounded myself with reading materials, and every week, I say to myself, "Self, this is the weekend I'll enjoy the room."

And then I usually don't sniff the room except to yank out fresh underwear from my dresser.

However, spring is here, and I am hoping to spend more time outdoors. For example, I have to mow the yard here in a bit. While it's a chore, it's also quite cathartic, too. Like the reading room. Heck, one of the things in my reading room is last week's Sunday New York Times.

You know what the beauty about the Times is? You can read it almost any week, and even if some of the articles are out of date by the time you get to it, you're just so impressed by the level of writing, the skill of the constructor, the feel of the metropolitan ink that it still satisfies.

***

It just occurred to me that your pet peeve might be when people outline their pet peeves, as if the world revolves around them. That is actually a pet peeve of mine. I think to myself, "Who are you to think so much of yourself that you would tell the rest of us what bothers you, with the expectation that by declaring such that we would then be obligated to not violate said peeve?"

***

My buddy T gleefully noted that he heard Idol's numbers overall were down this year. I thought to myself that it was quite possible, given that the level of talent this year is just terrible except for a couple of contestants.

So, I looked it up this morning.

Overall numbers are up, proportionally up as they have been every year since the show's 2002 inception. In fact, Idol is now in a virtual tie with CBS for overall viewership in the 18-49 demo, thanks primarily to Idol.

However, what he had heard was that last week's show was down 15 percent from the same episode a year ago.

The article notes that daylight-saving time being early this year probably has a lot to do with it. That would make sense. It would also make sense that the regression of talent from last year to this would have something to do with it.

One of the things folks have to remember is that the very nature of our ever-increasing entertainment choices means that every show will eventually lose viewership over the years. Why? More choices. I can watch network TV, cable TV, a movie on-air, a DVD, something on my DVR, surf the Web, not to mention all the other choices, which have always existed, such as reading a book, taking a walk, attending church, whatever.

The gauge industry experts will use to measure this show is how it fares compared to the competition. It kills it so badly at this point that the other networks give up, hence why Ugly Betty was in re-runs for three weeks on Thursdays while Idol was on.

***

I think one weekend every month should be a three-day weekend, something we could incorporate into our business culture. I almost hate Sundays worse than Mondays because I anticipate having to resume my regular schedule as opposed to having this free time.

Perhaps it's another pet peeve?

In what is turning out to be the worst overall season of American Idol since its inception in 2002, Melinda Doolittle and Lakisha Jones are either making everybody else look indescribably bad or they're just that good.

I still say Melinda is miles ahead of Lakisha for one reason: degree of difficulty. Doolittle sang "Home," some obscure song from The Wiz while Jones sang "God Bless The Child," which a thousand singers have done quite well.

What made Tuesday night's episode of Idol unique is the big "who cares" factor among everybody else. Chris Sligh came out with an adult rock version of "Endless Love" and polarized the crowd among those who thought it was the worst thing ever and those who thought it wasn't quite the worst thing ever.

Count me among the latter; I didn't think it was nearly as bad as everybody else. However, I find the song to be rather vapid when compared to a billion other ballads he could have chosen. In fact, if I'm being honest (to quote Simon Cowell), I am not a fan of Diana Ross.

Her voice. Her look. The whole drag-queen thing.

I'm not sure I would have done any better picking among her tunes. However, if I'm Sligh or Blake Lewis, I stick to the original arrangements in the future. I've been amazed thus far at how Brandon Rogers has taken a potentially great voice and messed up his chances of winning this show by picking songs that don't match his style at all or for not having a style at all. Nonetheless, Sligh and Lewis both get sent to the dunce corner for doing too much by even trying to re-arrange these songs.

Hey, on "Rock Star," you can arrange the song any way you'd like. You can play instruments. You can drink and smoke and get tattooed and cuss and show off naughty bits and the whole bit, but you know what the big difference is? The house band on that show is really, really, really tight, and to arrange songs and then put it in the hands of the Ricky Minor band, I think, is a mistake.

What's amazing about Sligh's arrangement and how it didn't come off is that if you listen to Half Past Forever's "Know," you'll know just how good of an arranger he is. Now, that doesn't mean it always works, but I'm not convinced that the Idol house band didn't foul that up.

Regardless, it didn't work, and frankly none of it worked.

Sanjaya Malakar has officially grown a vagina, as he wailed through "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and shook his tail like a prepubescent girl. Unfortunately, this season's second Justin Suarez swish-alike can't sing worth ass.

He's not to be outdone by the underachieving, terribly disappointing Brandon Rogers, the first guy from North Texas who sucks. UNT is only the best music school in the southwest, but you wouldn't know it by listening to this dude. Great tone, but he's a complete underachiever musically.

Phil Stacey looks like a cancer patient and sings in such a way that it makes me wish I were undergoing chemo, and Chris Richardson is a nice enough kid who, truthfully, only got this far because he sounds like Justin Timberlake.

The women weren't that much better; however, they were all moderately good. Haley Scarnato wasn't nearly as bad as Randy and Paula made her out to be. Heck, Simon even took up for her, and may I say just how gorgeous she is. Points for lookin' hot because Lord knows there wasn't much musical outside of the Wonder Twins for me to appreciate this week.

Jordin Sparks looked cute as well but, dude, I wasn't feelin' it, dawg. Her rendition of whatever the hell that was made me want to don the dress blues and put cellophane over my head like Ben Kingsley in the great "House of Sand & Fog."

I'm grumpy, tired and going to bed.

One of the ways in which I hope to utilize YouTube is to give piano lessons. No, I don't have a teaching certificate, and I have no lesson plan or even a darned idea as to how I'll show those who are interested how to do what I am hoping to show them.

In other words, I might suck at it.

However, with the help of the Web community and their comments and guidance, I'll adjust and adapt along the way. The premise here is to pass on some tricks of the trade, as my dad did with me.

Side note: He woulda been 79 years old today ... Great man, and one hell of a piano player. Incredible musician.

The buzz in the world of national news this week is that Rick Kaplan was hired to oversee the CBS Evening News, and rumor has it (a la The Drudge Report) that anchor Katie Couric wasn't consulted.

In one of my more ignominious blog predictions, I do believe I said the news world should watch out for Couric. After five days of her on-air existence, I had apparently decided to drink the Kool-Aid.

Mind you, I had a good track record. Months before, I had predicted in front of my colleagues in our morning editorial meeting that I didn't think Bob Woodruff and Liz Vargas would last a year at the helm of World News Tonight.

I was right, although it was really brought about by a near tragedy, referring of course to Bob's close call in Iraq. Nevertheless, theirs was a failed experiment, not so much because of him but because of her. Fortunately for ABC News, she got pregnant, which gave execs the bright idea to move Charlie Gibson into her spot.

Smart move, a good long-term move if Gibson is interested long-term.

Amid reports that NBC News' Brian Williams has hemorrhaged viewers over the past year and amid rumors that Katie only has seven total viewers left, news department executives at the major networks are pondering the future not only of their anchors but also of their broadcasts.

I'm here to help.

Having worked in television -- well, the digital portion of the business -- for the past two years, I've learned what makes a good newscast visually and contentually. I don't want to brag too much about the station where I work because I don't think it's too wise to make a direct association between my blog and the newsroom because there is none.

However, let's just say that while watching Idol the other night, I was replaying intro shots where Ryan Seacrest would walk down the stairs or how the cameras would move around and comparing it to how we decide such things at work. Not me, I don't decide these things, but I keep my ear to the ground in hopes of learning a little something.

Brian Williams has nothing to fear I don't think, at least not yet. However, Kaplan is going to be faced with Katie's future, I think, before the year is out. I think he'll be forced to buy out her contract and send her on the merry road back to entertainment-based television.

CBS fired its evening news executive producer, which prompted one of my colleagues to note, "That's the way it usually works. The talent stinks, so they fire the EP," a comment obviously filled with playful sarcasm. After just two weeks at the helm of CBS' Evening News, Couric was said to have paid for her own salary in the form of advertising won by Madison Avenue execs.

At some point, her continued employment at the helm of a once-respected newscast could likely bankrupt them long-term in terms of credibility. In an industry, at the network level, that is just dying at every fiber, network newscasts desperately need credibility. When ABC News serendipitously brought Charlie into the lead anchor role, its newscast benefitted with a much-needed boost.

Network news viewers, I suspect, like folks anchoring the news who have been in the trenches. Weathered souls who remind them of a day when the Ed Murrows of the world reigned, offering us the news with limited analysis and commentary but giving viewers subtle perspective.

For example, even though he was crazy as a loon at times, Dan Rather had covered wars in other countries, hurricanes at the peak of the storm and politics from the convention floor. As an anchor, Rather was able to connect with viewers in part because they knew that he knew first-hand about many of the things he was reporting.

To that end, I think news viewers respect reporters, reporters turned anchors if you will. Hosting the "Today" show doesn't cut it. Hosting ABC News "Primetime" likely doesn't either.

Months before Katie took the helm at CBS, Bob Schieffer had really started to build an audience. He's old school, a straight-talking Texan with so many skins under his belt that viewers automatically respected him for what he had done even if they didn't care for the on-air product.

Katie experimented with format, opting for in-depth pieces at first, including a much-maligned segment in which celebs were allowed to offer 2 minutes worth of "free speech." They then opted for more of a breaking-news format, a decision that I don't believe put the proper focus on the problem.

Her.

She was a gimmick.

My initial thought was that it was a gimmick that could jump-start CBS' news division. I'm not sure why, but for two weeks, I was right.

Still, I recall telling a colleague that, if it had been up to me, I would have doled out the big bucks to lure Anderson Cooper over from CNN. In retrospect, it would have been another boneheaded call on my part.

What Rick Kaplan's first order of business should be, presuming he has the authority as the new EP, is to fire Katie and reinstate Bob Schieffer as the permanent anchor for the CBS Evening News.

If he doesn't want the gig, I'd look to guys with gray hair, wrinkles and a ton of reporting experience. While I don't intend this to be a sexist remark, it is by definition: I don't suspect there are too many female anchors who could revive a network news broadcast, only because the audience demographic is way more "traditional" and skewers older.

The one who comes to mind who could is Diane Sawyer, who is experienced, powerful, respected, classy and -- hopefully -- going nowhere outside of ABC.

Truth is, if Schieffer didn't want the gig, I'm not sure what Kaplan should do. At ABC, the producers of "Nightline" completely revamped the format of the show when Ted Koppel left, and it's paid dividends both in terms of audience share and critically.

It's actually a better albeit lighter program now that Ted's gone.

That doesn't please the hardcore news geek, but that person has a plethora of choices on cable and online. This is where Kaplan could do something innovative and differentiate his newscast by making it significantly lighter.

Cover the breaking news of the day that people missed. The police chases. The school lockdowns. The bomb threats. The planes with landing gear that won't come down. The stuff that mesmerizes those of us who get to watch the news all day.

While there is a place for hard news, frankly, ABC and NBC are killing CBS at that game. The only chance the boys at black rock have of doing something innovative and, in turn, dominating those 30 minutes once again is to invoke a little "creative destruction."

Reinvent the evening news.

Not just the host. Not just the style of news presentation. They should reinvent the whole damned thing and turn it into 30 minutes that isn't so much informative as it is appointment television.

My gut hunch is that Kaplan will not nearly be so daring or innovative.

The vixen is gone from American Idol, and although I figured my headline would catch your attention, I do have some sympathy for the Point Pleasant, N.J., native.

I should readily admit: I'm going to be a lousy, sappy father one day, particularly if I have a daughter. I'm a big mama's boy, and I'm a sucker for young people, particularly girls. Each year, this round of Idol gets tougher and tougher to watch as Ryan Seacrest parades two girls up to the front of the stage knowing that one will definitely be going home.

It happened to Barba and to Sabrina Sloan, and both were in tears -- along with Stephanie Edwards and Haley Scarnato -- the minute they were paraded to the front. See, most of the contestants sail through, and then a few at the end have to sweat, er, cry it out.

They hold hands less like it was the announcement of who would win Miss America and more like who would be sent to the executioner, or in this case, back to real life.

Here's where I am a sap, sap, sap.

Everybody who watches Idol know how much getting to the Final 12 means to each contestant, and if you can't feel a bit of sympathy for them in their position, well, you really don't have much of a heart.

But, wait a second? This isn't life or death at all!

Of course not, but it is what wraps people up in this show. It's absurdity at the highest form, although considering Antonella Barba is pretty much the hottest search on Google in a long while, it was also a surprise that she was eliminated.

Forget talent for a bit; truth is, Barba was still better than about half the guys. Nevertheless, the guys didn't have photos paraded on Web sites with them in their skivvies, showing off breasts and bootie and then acknowledging on their MySpace page that it was "making them famous."

So, we're caught in the Catch 22 that pervades much of the youth-dominated entertainment industry. Is the individual a total dope or really smarter and savvier than we give her credit?

In this case, I think Barba's lack of experience in this realm renders her the former. Nevertheless, she's received offers to be a spokeswoman for Girls Gone Wild and some porn operation, both offers that could collectively make her a millionaire fast.

What's sad beyond the sappiness that this round of Idol brings us every year is that young women feel the need to take advantage of their good looks to the extent that they objectify themselves. Heck, society is going to do that for you, honey. Why help them out?

It's called immaturity.

We're left with two great singers, four or five potentially great singers and four or five dismally mediocre singers, which is about the M.O. for our favorite show year after year.

While I still have my stakes behind Tulsa-native Melinda Doolittle, I say watch out for Gina Glocksen. There is some definite talent there -- shapable, pliable talent from somebody, who if she'll listen to the judges, could stun a few contestants along the way.

Plus, for being as cute as she is (see, I'm playing the role of an objectifying society), she has a very average-looking boyfriend, giving all of us average-looking dopes hope.

Heck, if we're just ranking them in terms of cuteness, it doesn't get much cuter than Jordin Sparks. However, I'll temper my comments because her dad was an NFL player.

Besides, like I said before, I can kind of sympathize -- watching a show like this -- how fathers probably feel watching their daughters go through situations like these.

The good news for those of us saps is that the show gets much more stoic from here on out because, in the end, the real goal for each contestant on the show is to make that Final 12. To win would be great, but the real opportunity is won or lost in making that final group.

Unless you're Antonella Barba. What'll be interesting is to see what path she chooses.

Lots of talk this week about Antonella Barba raising the ire of former Idol castoff Frenchie Davis, who was ousted in Season 2 because somebody discovered there were nudie pics of the singer online.

Of course, relatively speaking, Barba is a porn queen, although the really graphic photos of her engaged in oral sex are fakes, proven by numerous sites. On the other hand, the pics of her in a see-through top under a water fountain are apparently the real deal.

In this week before the Top 12 is revealed, Davis' fans are pissed that Barba is still around. Rosie O'Donnell called Idol racist and weightist and then admitted she had to be treated for depression after the Columbine shootings.

In the past, I've typically defended Rosie, but methinks the Donald might have been on to something. The notion that a school shooting that, relatively speaking, did not involve you would send you into clinical depression of any sort is self-indulgent at the highest level.

Sept. 11, I could see. The Oklahoma City bombing, I could see. Katrina, I could see.

I guess. This notion that the world revolves around an individual to the extent it does Rosie, well, just turns me off big time. However, I digress.

The point Rosie fails to understand is that in Season 2, American Idol was doing well but was still in kind of a trial phase. They're marketed as a family show, although Wednesday nights "Paula's under the table" comments from Randy demonstrate something to the contrary, and I've always maintained that our favorite show can get away with much more in Season 6 than it could in Season 2.

Given the obvious talent Frenchie has, demonstrated by a long run on Broadway in both RENT and Dreamgirls, I think she would have survived the controversy in Season 6. In fact, many pundits believe the judges will all but hand Lakisha Jones the Idol crown in light of the success Jennifer Hudson had at the Oscars.

However, as for Antonella Barba, I suspect she's a contestant we could have to deal with for a few more weeks. First, she's a looker. Second, she's still better than about half the male singers. Third, there is a significant element of Idol voters who cast their choices based on who they perceive to be the worst singer or most controversial contestant, a way to bring absurdity to the competition.

Take "Chicken Little," Kevin Covais last year. Take John Stevens three years ago. How about Scott Savol?

In the week before the Top 12 debuts, there's always a stunner. Gedeon McKinney, who proved to be one of the more original male singers in Season 5 was ousted this week last year. His female counterpart, Ayla Brown, was the final cut before the Top 12 was set. I refer to her as Gedeon's counterpart because they arguably should have been contenders to stick around until the Top 6 or better.

According to DialIdol.com, a site that is fairly accurate about predicting winners both to my pleasure and annoyance, both Sabrina Sloan and Stephanie Edwards -- both extremely talented singers -- are in danger of not making the cut.

Among the men, Sanjaya Malakar and Sundance Head very well might make the Top 12.

Every year, there are three or four singers who flat-out cannot sing who make the Top 12 for whatever reason. The fact that Antonella Barba is hot and that the tween girls love Sanjaya probably will result in Season 6 being no different.

However, considering the general consensus is that the single-best five singers are all of color, one of whom is a big woman, leads me to no other conclusion than that Rosie is just full of it. Again.

Like with Jennifer Hudson in Season 3, it doesn't mean Lakisha won't get hosed by the American public at some point. However, the show itself has shown the Maryland native nothing but love.

And, that's the difference between Idol in Season 6 and Idol in Season 2. In Season 6, Frenchie could have been a whore and made it because, truly, the show's executives are feeling pretty fearless these days and the woman had and still has extraordinary talent.

Thankfully for us, as proven by the wide success the show has had the past two years among many of its contestants, talent is now the predominant factor by which these aspiring singers are judged.

And, now for America's favorite parlor game: Women, Men Or Both?

Sometimes on YouTube, I'll follow the links to the sites from people who post comments on my posts, and this is a video I found in one guy's channel list.

So, I pose the question to you ... Women, Men Or Both? If you don't know what I mean by this question, watch the damned video already. You'll get it soon enough.

BTW, this is totally safe for work, but it is weird at the highest order of weird.

A lot of conversation this weekend about Idol's place in pop culture. My friends say it's a fad that'll be gone as soon as it came, and I kid them with all sincerity when I note they are clueless about the impact the show has had on American culture.

Actually, I'm not kidding them about that, per se, because I think they're attuned to pop culture, although I'm a tad more familiar with ratings, TV/pop culture history and tend to read trade press way more often. I do enjoy torturing them with the possibility that Idol would only get bigger and stick around for millennia.

Truth is, exaggeration aside, the facts and precedent both suggest I'm closer to being right, for right now.

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker has called it the most impactful show in the history of television, and he's not just paying lip service.

Television executives have no choice but to sit in awe of this five-month-per-year television monster. Unlike some events like the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards, Idol is on about about 50 times over the course of 20 weeks. That's merely a guesstimate on my part; however, what's not a guess is the show's ratings.

As of a couple of weeks ago, the show pulled in a 31 share, four times its nearest competitor. What's stunning about this feat is that not only does Idol do this every night during its annual five-month run, the show has consistently gained audience share during its six-season run.

That does not happen in television. It is like the episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, in which Johnny Fever's reaction time got better the more booze he drank -- during an episode where he and Venus Fly Trap were doing some public service work.

It defies logic, really, and the show has been on long enough such that we could say this trend is actually a pattern. The sample size is plenty large.

However, as I worked out tonight and watched a couple conference tourney games on ESPN, I realized that Idol has a lot more in common with sports than I would have ever thought. The show's growth in popularity and its place in American culture is somewhat like college basketball's big dance.

For two weeks per year, every year, since about 1985 (when the tourney expanded to 64 teams -- now 65), the NCAA tournament is this event that nearly everyone pays attention to in some fashion. Either there is a George Mason that catches our Cinderella fancy, or perhaps the Sooners are making a run at the Final Four (uh, not this year).

The Big Dance takes up network television air time, an annoyance for non-sports fans, and has only gotten bigger over the 22 years since it really became part of pop culture, thanks to Dick Vitale and ESPN, not to forget CBS, which puts on the tourney every year.

The point I was trying to make this weekend is that Idol at this point has to be looked at by competitors as more than a show. It's an event, and to think it can't continue its growth and entrenchment into American pop culture over the next decade is foolish.

Sure, there is the possibility that an event itself brings down the show. All three judges die in a circus accident. The winner gets mired in some sort of conspiracy to overthrow the government. Simons Cowell and Fuller, as well as Nigel Lythgoe, simply decide they've gotten bored with putting the show together, and they decide to spend their days counting money.

However, given that the show dominates the 18-49 demographic -- women and men -- unlike any any multi-episodic show in the history of television by four times what it would need to be wildly successful, Idol could be retired to cable in 10 years with a different set of hosts and automatically be the biggest cable show running, no problem -- profitable and even more entrenched into American culture.

Like the NCAA tournament, Idol attracts viewership across all age groups -- all of them. It skews toward women, but enough men watch the show that it's the most popular show among adult men in America, and it's an advertiser's dream because they can pitch their wares to a public already attuned to Cinderella and the American dream.

Only when NBC's Zucker acknowledged just how powerful the show is did he give the other networks a hope to be competitive because they have been in denial since 2002. As long as executives underestimate the impact Idol has on television and the advertising dollar, the show will be able to cruise along without pressing the pedal.

Years. Decades. They could have an American Idol 25th anniversary show at this rate, although odds make that an improbability.

Nevertheless, its success, its profitability and the precedent set by multi-episodic events that have only grown and grown and grown -- like the NCAA basketball tournament -- demonstrate that its possibility shouldn't be underestimated either.

The best way to counter it is for television executives to realize that they are no longer in the business of developing television shows. That is for chumps; TV innovators are now in the business of creating events that have deep cultural and business impact.

You can hate the society that reflects if you'd like; however, I am offering you the truth, a truth the other networks better get on board with fast.

The first great CD of 2007 is here, and it's a tremendous album. Hearkening the style of 1970s pop powerhouses 10cc, Supertramp and Andrew Gold, British band The Feeling hopes to break through stateside with their effort "Twelve Stops & Home."

I've gone through the first seven songs, and they are all brilliant. The band is tight. The sound is fresh, pure unadulterated power pop.

So far, the album of 2007. Here's a video for what I think is the best track on the CD. The tune is called "Never Be Lonely."

I spent most of the weekend celebrating the 40th birthday of a very good friend of mine, and in doing so discovered quite a bit more about Norman, Okla.

Mind you, I've lived here for seven years now -- five in college and post-college and two in adult life. I think it took me at least two years to become acclimated to Dallas, and in some respects I think I'm finally coming into my own here in Oklahoma's coolest town.

That's not my opinion only; Money Magazine named Norman the 40th best place to live in all of America for 2006, ranking No. 1 among Oklahoma cities. However, between work and some semblance of a social life, it's been hard for the first couple of years to get acclimated to Norman-the-city-as-a-whole as opposed to Norman-the-college-town.

Nevertheless, J's 40th birthday weekend was a big step in that acclimation, the kind of experience that ties people to a place for decades.

First, we spent a little time bar-hopping up and down Main Street in Norman. For the longest time, we avoided Main Street because we're among the rare individuals that if we do drink, we don't drive. In a college town, that's pretty rare unfortunately.

The problem always was that there wasn't anyplace to park a car overnight without getting towed, a policy that practically begged for people to drive drunkenly. Recently though, the city built a parking lot in the area, and we called to make sure we could keep our car there ... and, we could.

Good for Norman.

Norman's Main Street initiative has been at least moderately successful, but it's still not the hot spot that campus corner is during football season or that Oklahoma City's Bricktown district is every weekend.

But, boy, are there some gems.

Bill & Dee's Tavern is a townie's drinkin' spot, a place for the mostly blue-collared locals to put back some cold brews and liquor. There might be a college face in the crowd from time to time, but mostly not.

The prices are uber-cheap, the jukebox is excellent, and the ambience is almost as good as Dallas' Adair's Saloon, which inch for inch is the best bar I have ever been in.

It's high praise for this little bar in Norman that's been around since the 1960s but has only been discovered by moi this weekend. Greatness. The only drawback is that, oddly enough, they have a rule forbidding the "f" word. That just seems a bit odd.

We're pretty sure they allow the "c" word, but we didn't test 'em.

There's a BlueBonnet Bar down the street, but they don't serve liquor. Just beer. While that's fine for me, that doesn't fly for my buddy T. However, the bartender had great, uh, bartending skills. A pair of them.

It seems -- and I could be wrong -- that the staff at each place wanders on over to the other establishment to get a drink or two in during their shifts. Don't know that for sure, but it's a brilliant ruse as long as nobody's too wise to it.

There were many more fresh faces in the BlueBonnet, but not enough that would make the place any less townie. In fact, depending on one's state of mind -- drinkin' or screwin' -- having both venues so close to each other is pretty advantageous to those of us who like a little variety in our nights out.

However, the weekend wasn't all about drinking.

I should apologize right off for not getting back to a good friend of mine whose father died recently. She had said she wanted to get together to catch up, but I never really knew when that would be over the course of the next couple days, so I didn't get the message her husband left until the next day.

The weekend was also about working out, kind of. In two years of living in Norman, I haven't utilized the park that sits a block next to my house, and that is an embarrassment. Part of what I'm trying to accomplish this year is to work out at least 20 of every 30 days in a month. So far, I've worked out on Mar. 1 and 4, which means I'll go at it on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday to get back on pace. I'll rest on Wednesday and Sunday, I suspect.

Anyway, I work out on a treadmill, which is terrific, but I think it does the body good to get outside for some fresh air while one exercises. Lions Park has a terrific jogging trail, about 1/3 of a mile long, and it's often chock-full of cute girls.

The trick to working out outdoors is to do yourself a lot of good without looking like you're too much out of shape. Hard to impress the ladies when you look like a coronary is imminent.

Well, unless they're the motherly type.

Finally, I got my car washed -- inside and out -- for a whopping $12 at a place called FastLane, down on Main Street. What's crazy about this is that, in Dallas, this type of detailing costs at least 2.5 times this much.

Now, Norman and Dallas are pretty much equal when it comes to cost of living. However, in Norman, dry cleaning costs out the butt compared to Big D, and I've learned, in Norman, I can keep my car spotless for a lot less than anywhere I've ever lived.

Now, the chicks might not like me so much when I'm in the midst of passing out in public (at the park not the bar, silly), but they definitely appreciate cleanliness, and that begins with a clean car. I love being clean but fail so often with it.

Bottom line, that's why it's so cool to discover these little things about your town. One can achieve more and use time better while still having more and more fun.

Or, perhaps I'm just giddy because spring is almost here.

May winter die a million deaths before we see it again.

Well, there are still 2.5 months to go in the 2007 American Idol competition, and we've already had what I think, musically, is an unbeatable "wow" moment for the season.

Tulsa-native Melinda Doolittle's version of "My Funny Valentine" is embedded here, and if you'd like to see some greatness, I highly encourage you to watch it. This gives me a giant musical chubby.