D&D - Top 9 of 2009 - #8

As we mentioned yesterday, the word "shows" in this Top Nine D&D "Shows" of 2009 countdown is in quotation marks for a reason. Today's entry isn't a specific show, but rather a topic of contention that popped up a couple times in 2009 (and once in 2008). Jeff Deminski's public rant against annoying, self-absorbed, holier-than-thou bicyclists caused quite a stir when it first aired in August (more like the day after it aired when the Bicycle Borg Collective across the country began their e-mail and voicemail campaign), but it actually wasn't the first time this topic was mentioned on the show. He first brought it up back in January, but I guess since it wasn't a segment inspired by an anti-bicyclist-target-practice law, they were spared the full wrath of the Cyclist Hive that time. Both on-air segments were borne from a blog post Jeff made during the no-compete year of 2008. Here's what we had to say back on August 10, 2009 about the pedal-pushers' responses to D&D's original August segment:

Wow has this show evolved. Their FCC complaints used to be about Dirty Sanchezes and Cleveland Steamers and now people are complaining about a rant against bicyclists? C'mon, we all know the only reason you ride a bike to work is because your license got taken away after your last DUI. The guy they interviewed today wasn't just a dick, he was a nervous dick. Come to think of it, maybe the issue here is not that the show has changed since 2002 (though of course it has), rather perhaps bicyclists (and Americans in general) are too self-absorbed and self-centric and just appalled when someone calls them out on their bullshit.

Here's the bike-related audio (unlike the full-show reposts, we've pulled most of the sports and traffic out of the partial podcast reposts):

1. July 13, 2008 -- Found a Google cache of Jeff's original anti-bicyclist blog post from 2008 that includes all the original idiotic responses
2. January 19 -- Jeff brings up the topic of annoying bicyclists who think they own the road for the first time on WCSX
3. August 5-10 Part 1 -- The original "BikeGate" segment from August and the first inkling of the backlash...plus a bonus "Rudy's grossed out by shower-pee" segment
4. August 5-10 Part 2 -- Continuous coverage of "BikeGate" Day 2...voicemails and e-mails from the wingnuts are read and played on the air...Jim is working to get an alternate viewpoint on the air
5. August 5-10 Part 3 -- "BikeGate" Week 2 features Paul Allman, a board member of the Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition came on the show for a little on-air cagematch

The best part of this? The bicyclists actually think they had something to do with the departure of D&D from WCSX! This is like Rush Limbaugh thinking he had something to do with Obama losing the elec--oh, wait. Bad example.

BONUS PODCASTS (updated 2011 Mediafire links):

While searching for the aforementioned BikeGate audio, I stumbled upon the July 15 show, which could have been on this list in its own right. Here are a few WCSX.com podcasts from that day -- inspired by the TV show, Rudy plays a "Catch It, Keep It" challenge with a bottle of Jager, Jim O'Brien barely survives an on-air tai-chi demonstration, and Rudy later embarrasses himself by recounting his recent bike crash and his plans to go to see the new Harry Potter movie by himself.