Heard or seen something on the radio and TV lately that appalled/delighted/enlightened you? Of course you have. That's what Station Break with Paul Farhi is here for. Local stations, cable, radio shows, commercials -- they're all fair game.

Farhi, a reporter in the Post's Style section, writes about media and popular culture. He's been watching TV and listening to the radio since "The Monkees" were in first run and Adam West was a star. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles, Farhi had brief stints in the movie business (as an usher at the Picwood Theater), and in the auto industry (rental-car lot guy) before devoting himself fulltime to word processing. His car has 15 radio pre-sets and his cable system has 75 channels. He vows to use all of them for good instead of evil.

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Paul Farhi: Greetings, tube and transistor people (or whatever it is they make radios and tvs out of these days--Soylent Green?). I'm back from a week out, tanned, rested and ready, come what may. So bring it, and them, on....

Washington, D.C.: What's up with Tony Kornheiser and ESPN radio? Story said he was suspended for a week last week. He's not on again today. Subs says vacation.

washingtonpost.com: ESPN Suspends Post's Kornheiser (Washington Post, July 16, 2002)

Paul Farhi: I know what I read in the paper. Tony said some apparently very nasty stuff about ESPN's management (dunno what) off the air. They took what they considered appropriate action. Now it's in the arguing stage.

Rockville, Md.: It appears that the Don and Mike show has been dropped from WNEW. Is there a possibility a similar thing will result here? They seem to be going downhill.

Paul Farhi: Not gonna happen here, unless D&M break their contract (which is unlikely). They are very strong in this market. But I am sure they'll be shopping for a new deal, elsewhere, when their current contract with Infinity expires next summer.

Alexandria, Va.: Your article on WMAL's tinkering with morning programming didn't go far enough. The current lineup's IN-YOUR-FACE style not something I want for wake-up or breakfast fare. Hardin and Weaver reruns would draw a bigger crowd!

washingtonpost.com: WMAL's A.M. Tinkering Turns Off Listeners (July 23, 2002)

Paul Farhi: Well, as the story said, when you mess with a habit you pay. Things will settle down at WMAL. Give it six months.

Washington, D.C.: The tv book in the Post makes me nuts. How can I watch tv, if I don't know what's on?

Ok, here's the deal. I don't have cable. So, you'd think that I could simply use the broadcast listings, right? No. First off, it carries stations I can't get (Does everyone except me get MPT? I wish I could get it.) Ok, so I can ignore those. But second, it doesn't have listings for all the channels that I do get. In addition, the movie listings cover 54 and 45, so I can see what movies they have, but the grids don't, so I can't tell what programs they have.

Now, as I'm in downtown Washington, D.C., you'd think that my tv reception would be fairly representative of a major part of the region. Apparently not.

The guide carries more and more cable every week, and less and less broadcast. Broadcast viewers are still out here! We want to know what's on too!

washingtonpost.com: You can access the TV Grid online here.

Paul Farhi: You don't have cable?! This is the 21st Century, WDC. Personally, I like our TV book. But if you had cable you could just flip to the electronic channel scroll that most systems run (I think the TV Guide channel has monopolized this business). Get with the program(s)!

Alexandria, Va.: I got rid of my television set over a year ago and don't miss it at all (okay, except for reruns of the Simpsons). People think I am the only one in the world without a TV, but I personally know three other people without televisions, and know of several others. Do you know someone who is TV-less or have you ever tried to do without?

Paul Farhi: Um, the Luddite Chat is next hour. We do TV and radio here.

Arlington, Va.: Thoughts on the radio ratings released in Washington D.C. yesterday?

Paul Farhi: The not-very-dirty-nor-little-nor-secret secret about the quarterly ratings is that very little changes from book to book (and if it did, one book's change does not make a trend). That said, WMAL's meltdown was very striking. Also, the fact that Dave Adler's now-cancelled morning program on WBIG improved its position was a surprise, and makes one wonder what Clear Channel was doing in dumping Dave.

Vienna, Va.: AM 630 -- The Sean Hannity show. Someone just told me his show was expanded due to audience demand.

I fail to understand the appeal of such shows. I listed to him and a guest use words like "unpatriotic, uninformed, America Haters, simple minded idiots, and on and on" to describe people who consider themselves Democrats.

The unpatriotic part got me because my grandfather was in WWII, my dad was in Korea, and I was in the Gulf War. I know a lot of people who are both Democrats and who are very patriotic and who make a lot of quiet sacrifices. They don't yell about who is the biggest hawk.

Do people really take him seriously or is he there because of ABC's (Disney) desire to push corporate objectives disguised as so-called news talk?

Paul Farhi: Sean isn't expanding on WMAL (630), but he's proven quite popular. As for calling people "unpatriotic" etc., well, that's the name of that game. You bait, you rabble rouse, you demogogue your way to fame and fortune. It's the story of (conservative) talk radio for the last, oh, 20 years, maybe longer.

Gaithersburg, Md.: Give WMAL six months? I gave them years, back when they were friendly and interesting and local. Harden and Weaver were terrific. Trumbull and Core were fun. Charlie Warren is good, but he's on in the middle of the night.

Ever since the station tossed John Lyons and picked up Rush Limbaugh, it's been a steady downhill ride. Loud, nasty, argumentative syndicated junk radio has replaced local broadcasting. Apparently beating straw men to death gets better numbers than serving the listeners.

Paul Farhi: Another listener heard from.

Washington, D.C.: Your mini-bio above says your cable system has 75 channels. ONLY 75 channels? And you're writing about TV? You're missing half of it! What gives?

Paul Farhi: Okay, it's * time. 75 channels, basic. Maybe 50 more between premium cable, ppv, and the rather horrific digital cable lineup. Has anyone ever seen anything on digicable that's worth the dough?

Vienna, Va.: WMAL management should be shaking in their boots when the powers that be in Mickey Mouse Land (that owns the station) get a look at their latest Arbitron ratings. They took a resonably succesful morning drive time show ("Tim and Andy In The Morning") and blew it up by changing the format, forcing out Tim Brant, and replacing him with the annoying Bill Press (who was recently fired from CNN because of his ratings plunge). What was WMAL thinking? Press is not the type of guy people want to listen to at 6 in the morning. As a result of Press being added to the show (and let's face it, he has been appearing fairly regularly since April 1) Andy Parks has seen his role reduced to village idiot. Throw in Jane Norris, another talking head whose opinion on any topic is well known before she opens her ever running mouth and you have the recipe for disaster (and those morning drive time numbers sure appear to have driven a downward spike in the stations overall numbers). How long will they allow this to continue? Do you think one more set of plunging numbers this summer will be enough to say adios to Press, Norris and company. The members of our car pool sure hope so. We were loyal WMAL morning listeners for the past 15 years. We changed to WTOP a few weeks ago because we just could not take it any longer. No one wants to be annoyed so early in the moring and either Press or Norris sure seemd to be annoying someone in the car each day. WTOP was a nice compromise -- we get traffic, sports, weather, news, and no controversy or annoying banter. Whats your read on the WMAL morning show's future?

Paul Farhi: Still another listener heard from.

Luvs TV: Why do people without TV feel so virtuous? I'm sick of the way people feel all holier-than-thou for, essentially, turning their backs on pop culture and the world they live in.

Paul Farhi: I gotta throw in with you here, LTV. These folks remind me of a very pompous rich lady character who showed up once on the "Dick Van Dyke Show." She bumps into Rob at a party. She asks him what he does for a living. He tells her he writes for the Allen Brady Show. She says, snootily, "That's TELEVISION, isn't it?" He says yes. She looks at him haughtily and replies, "Young man, I don't even own a television machine."

Worth it on digital cable: BBC America. Love it love it love it love it love it. And did you ever notice how BBC reporters always sound like they're saying something very important? Seriously, it's great to see a different perspective than CNN or dingy blonde MSNBC.

Paul Farhi: Ah, yes. I have BBC Am on basic where I live. I love/hate the way British reporters in the field are trained to draw out the last syllable of a sentence. Larraine Newman used to do a great parody of this inflection in the early days of "SNL."

Waldorf, Md.: Paul, is there anything better then watching an actual surgery like the Discovery Channel shows every now and then? I love that channel, animal porn and surgeries!

Paul Farhi: Ah, a surgery fan! I found myself watching that several times, and hating myself for it. Some poor schmoe was getting his toe transplanted to where his thumb used to be. Fascinating and horrible. That's good TV, my friends!

Lexington Park, Md.: When can we finally say goodbye to WHFS? Number 1 station in alternative rock. Blah. Way to make up your own category. So I guess when I play guitar at home that makes me Number 1 in La Plata Rock huh?

Is there going to be a major overhaul at HFS? This area really needs three rock stations, but right now we only have WIYY (98 Rock). DC101 and HFS are just dreadful.

Paul Farhi: HFS is on the resuscitator, and the oxygen is barely coming through. I am sure the smart people at Infinity are at Defcon Four on that problem right now. But they haven't told me what's what, or when it will be.

Fairfax County, Va.: DigiCable is worth the money if you are a sports fan (like myself) or if you are a fan of movies in Arabic (not so much me, but to each his own). The sports packages enable you to see games from all over the country and the globe at just about any sport you could think of.

Paul Farhi: Okay, that's a service, I guess. I'm a sports fan, but not THAT much of a sports fan. And lord knows, I like a good Arabic movie just as much as the next guy.

Rockville, Md.: The much beloved Tony would frequently lambaste the ESPN management for firing his good friend and produce Dennis Rogan. Apparently, they didn't contact Tony or confer with him at all about the decision, which enraged him further. I am definitely missing him.

Paul Farhi: Interesting. If true.

Fairfax, Va.: When Clear Channel dumped Bill Worthington and Kim Burton a couple of years ago, the numbers that came out soon after showed that they were actually improving. They are not will to give programs time. Now, it could also have been personnel issues, we don't know. I have to tell you that I am not impressed with the addition of Murphy and Cash.

Paul Farhi: Murphy & Cash have done just fine at 'MZQ over the years. But your larger point is interesting--a radio program takes months to establish an audience. I wonder if the radio giants (Clear Chan., Infinity, Radio One locally, etc.) are getting the same kind of itchy trigger fingers that our friends at the TV networks have...

Bethesda, Md.: Do you think WHFS' current "huge F'n sweeps" bit is the dumbest thing going in radio? What are their ratings like compared to DC101 and 98Rock?

Paul Farhi: Dumb, and as I've prudishly stated before, offensive. As for ratings, WHFS continues to glug along. It did a 1.6 share, sign-on to sign-off, slightly below par for its past four books. DC-101 typically has about twice or more the audience share (it did a 3.6 in the spring). Not sure about 98 Rock. That's Balmore. We don't do Balmore here.

Farifax, Va.: I do have to agree with everyone. The new WMAL morning show is horrible.

When they did that I switched over to WMZQ, now they have moved their morning people (Murphy and Cash) over to WBIG. Do they expect their fans to follow?! Just because I like Murphy and Cash doesn't mean I will listen to oldies music for them.

Paul Farhi: Waiting for a positive comment on WMAL...

Don't these people know: You don't screw around with the morning routine -- hell hath no fury.

Paul Farhi: Still waiting...

LeDroit Park -- Speaking of Hating Yourself: After successfully boycotting reality shows -- including Survivor -- for the past couple of years, I found myself succmbing to Meet My Folks last night. I think I'm hooked on the complete inanity and insanity. Is it "OK" to watch shows like this just because it's summer?

Paul Farhi: I don't know the show, but, yes, it is okay to indulge in stupid idiotic television. This great country was built on stupid idiotic television, dammit.

LTV: The surgery stuff is great viewing, particulary when they show the plastic surgery befores and afters. And my current favorite is pretty much anything on TLC, "Trading Places," all those "a ... story" shows ("A Dating Story," "A Wedding Story.") Sometimes they're cheesy, sometimes moving -- always addictive.

Paul Farhi: See prvs comment, re: S.I.TV.

I am from Holland -- isn't that funny?: What ever happened with the ongoing Don and Mike vs. Opie and Anthony saga. Have Don and Mike had a change of heart and instead chosen to focus all of their negative energy on Bob Levey? To be honest, hearing them rip on Levey is some of the funniest radio that I have heard in a while. Is Bob going to step up and meet their challenge in order to get a matching donation from them?

Paul Farhi: The D&M vs. O&A spat has very much settled down (though I think I can hear Don's teeth grinding, still). And Bob Levey is no Opie and/or Anthony. Hey, where's O&A's summer camp for kids?

Silver Spring, Md.: I might have missed any messages and/or answers, but what is your word on HBO's "The Wire?" I find it to be compelling TV. I see old "Homicide" and "The Corner" actors. Are most of the extras from the inner city of Baltimore? What a gas it must be for them to see themselves on the show. HBO shows its colors with quality programming like this.

Paul Farhi: Glad you asked. "The Wire" is a very good, but strangely overlooked show. David Simon (ex-Balto Sun, author, TV producer-writer) is a fine talent, and obviously is in a very familiar milieu here. Joe Bob says check it out.

TV-less in Alexandria, Va.: Wow -- what was so "virtuous" about my question about going TV-less? I'm not a Luddite -- I know how to use a computer. And I do listen to the radio. Okay, here's a self-rightous comment to make you happy -- is "Big Brother 3" really considered culture?

Paul Farhi: "Big Brother 3" is the last heaving belch of a dying civilization. It is indicative of man's supreme folly, and his existential futility. It also causes smog. There. Happy now?

Columbia, Md.: Do you know if ratings companies have begun tracking radio listening with some sort of automated device, yet? I would think that the results would show that many people don't listen to radio commmercials when driving, which is where much radio listening takes place.

For example, I listen to a morning radio show that does almost exactly 10 minutes of commercials at the top and bottom of the hour. They go to commercial, I go somewhere else and come back in 10 minutes.

How bad do you suppose it is? Does anybody listen to radio commercials in the car? Would this kill the ad money if they found out that people just don't listen?

Paul Farhi: Yes, Arbitron is doing a big experiment in the Philly area with passive electronic "people meters" (they register and record the signal of a station within a certain proximity). If they work the bugs out, this will likely revolutionize radio ratings, as Nielsen's "people meters" did in 1987. The diary method that has been used for decades is very clumsy, very crude. But no one has had a better idea.

Rockville, Md.: Finally! A forum to express my total digust with that Mercedes SUV commercial showing a father waking his son out of a dead sleep to go surfing during what seems to be a hurricane -- complete with driving over downed electrical lines!

Do they not know how many people have died after going to the beach to see the "cool" surf during major storms?

Paul Farhi: A lot?

Washington, D.C.: Joan Collins is coming back to TV, albeit Daytime TV (the soap Guiding Light). Can you stand the excitement?

Paul Farhi: I am, personally, feeling the magic (and the magic has asked me to stop feeling it).

Herndon, Va.: Can we now expect the sudden, dramatic demise of Six Feet Under with the spate of Emmy noms?

Paul Farhi: Hahahaha! The Emmy Curse! Kinda like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. Someone's going to earn a Ph.D tracking the qualitative decline of show after they win multiple Emmys (or nominations). See: "X Files," "West Wing," etc.

Fairfax, Va.: So Paul, Opie and Anthony have managed to take solid number one ratings and flush them down the toilet. Then they further alienate D.C. fans by getting into a war with our boys (D&M). Then they come out and say that we might as well listen, because they aren't going anywhere (that's a lot better reason to listen than them putting on a good show). We hate them, we want them to fail. Do they have a prayer?

Paul Farhi: With friends like you, they have no place to go but down and/or out. Incidentally, O&A held steady (among the 25-54 set) in the most recent ratings book.

"Big Brother 3" is the last heaving belch of a dying civilization: That's a great quote! Do I have your permission to use it in casual conversation?

Paul Farhi: As long as you add a little "TM" or R with a circle around it, yes.

Hmmmm: If Tv-less is indeed so blessed as to be without a television machine, how is it that he (just guessing on the he) knows that "Big Brother 3" is so bad. For all he knows, one can find the secret to life on there. And same goes for that other person who wanted to know if it was OK to admit watching "Survivor." I guess if all your friends were like TV-less, you wouldn't want to admit it for fear of being tarred and feathered. But really, it's just TV, it's entertainment. Not everything has to be a PBS documentary. Sheesh.

Paul Farhi: You thought TV-less was a "he"? I'd go the other way.

Alexandria, Va.: I have discovered a high-power D.C. station at 92.5 that plays top 40. This station never advertises and no one knows it exists.

What is going on? Why would someone own a radio station, pay to keep it on the air, and do nothing to attract listeners to it?

I would have to think that the owners could sell to WMAL-AM for millions and thus give WMAL an FM presence.

Paul Farhi: Thanks for the tip, Alexandria.

Arlington, Va.: You raise a good question with respect to digital cable. I finally gave in to Comcast's constant phone calls and mailings and am in the middle of my one-month free trial. And you're right, it's really not worth the extra $16/month. There are a couple of channels that have some interesting stuff once in a while, like BBC America and the extra Discovery channels, but that's about it. I also like VH1 Classic sometimes. But it's not worth so much more money per month. I don't really have enough time to watch all of the stuff I want to watch now. But if they added Fox Sports World I would pony up. For some reason they only seem to offer that channel to their viewers in the District, which sucks for those of us in Arlington.

Paul Farhi: There's a "VH-1 Classic" channel?! Wow. Pop-Up Video, Behind the Music, and Duran Duran videos wall to wall! What was that about the last heaving belch?

Fairfax County, Va.: Hi Paul,

I just want to rant about NBC4's morning news anchor Joe Krebbs. He's so dopey. That stupid little "wave" he has to give after every newscast, ugh. Plus he's trying to start a trend of saying the year as "twenty-oh-two" rather than "two-thousand-two." I just can't imagine that the station thinks he's good -- and I only watch because he's on before the Today show.

Paul Farhi: Me, I like Joe. He's the anti-anchor--unflashy, unslick, apparently "normal." He's everything that TV news usually rejects. You go, Joe, and your stupid little wave, too!

TVless in Bethesda, Md.: I don't own a TV
I'm a techie
I get my news from the Internet
I make my friend in person based upon their mental wingspan
TV is a good instructor, but can clip your wings of creativity and ability to think
Do you agree that people with less to talk about make more small talk about gossip, sports, and television shows?

Paul Farhi: Hey, listen, pal. What else do you want to talk about other than gossip, sports and TV shows? That about covers it for me. Oh, yeah, maybe I'd add "chicks" to that list, too.

Woodbridge, Va.: To Alexandria, 92.5 is WINC-FM Winchester, Va., it is high powered but it doesn't serve D.C., but Winchester/Martinsburg/Hagerstown. It's not at all a D.C. station. It has problems with a Spanish station on 92.7 that is more D.C. than 92.5

Paul Farhi: Another reader service. You are all welcome...

Demise of "Six Feet Under": Bite your tongue! "West Wing" sucks because Aaron Sorkin puts down the whatever pipe long enough to preach at everyone. "The Sopranos" gets nominated, but regularly shut out -- and it still rocks.

Paul Farhi: No quibbles with the rocking-ness of "The Sopranos." But there hasn't been a new episode for, what, 16 years? You don't win Emmys if you don't have a season.

Baltimore, Md.: VH1 Classics is TOTALLY worth the price of digital cable alone. When they do their '80s blocks, it's like watching MTV at the beginning, before it became a shill for the record labels and then a "lifestyle" channel. I could seriously waste my entire adulthood just as I wasted most of my teen years watching those damn videos.

Paul Farhi: See Tv-Less: Some people HAVE found the meaning of life through television.

Paul Farhi: Folks, I'm so glad for this time together. Just to share a laugh or sing a...oh, sorry (got carried away there). It has, as usual, been real. Let's reassemble in two weeks. Rock on with each and every one of your bad selves.

washingtonpost.com:

That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.

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