Yesterday, a segment aired on WCSX (a Detroit radio station) in the Deminski and Doyle show which I found to be pretty offensive. As a Michigander that’s been clipped by mirrors and had to bail numerous times to avoid being hit when a pissed off landscaper ‘buzzes’ you with their trailer, this kind of thing just blows my mind.
If you want to email WCSX management, use theboss@wcsx.com If you want to call them, try 248-398-9470.
I’ve eMailed them, and today I’ll be in touch with their sponsors, 3 of which (ironically) are Detroit Medical Center, Beaumont Childrens’ Hospital, and Medilodge.
What a dick, I would love to go to the station and smack the shit out of him. You can leave a 3 foot area if you’d slow down and wait till oncoming traffic. If I would have heard that I would have called in an instant. WOW!!! This guy has no clue. Picking on clothes and everything.
Here’s the email I just sent. I hope they get back to me. This might sound rude and I don’t mean it to, but did you listen to the class level of the callers calling in? I tried not to get into that in the email.
I just listened to the show from Deminski and Doyle yesterday regarding their thoughts on bicyclists and I am shocked by their miseducated comments. You obviously have never ridden a real road cycling bicyle anywhere or you would understand why the 3 feet of distance, the clothing, etc. Instead you sit in your station eating Krispy Cremes and talking smack. I would love to take you out in what ever type of clothing you think is appropriate for a 20 mile ride (which is very short) and see how your unpadded ass feels when your done or how those gym shorts are now up your ass and covered in sweat.
I do see things from both sides of this. As a driver who drives all over Metro Detroit I know where a safe place to ride a bike is and where it isnt. I do agree there are some total assclown cyclists on the road and I will beep at them too (but still safely pass them). They give the smart riders a bad name. Woodward is definitly not the place to ride a bike and you are practically asking to be hit. Also there is no reason to ride 2 wide on a road with vehicles on it at that time. They should be pacelining. At the same time I don’t see a reason a driver can’t just go to the other side of the road as if I were a police or fire vehicle on the side of the road. If someone is coming in the oncoming lane, try the brakes for a second till you can pass. I will intentionally pull into the lane on a road with no shoulder to make sure a driver doesnt try to play chicken with an oncoming car. He would definitly hit me to avoid a head on collision all because he couldnt hit the brakes for 2 seconds while the oncoming car passes.
As for who “owns” the road, I pay taxes the same as you. Obviously I drive a car too. So I am paying the same crappy registration fees yearly.
“Bike Paths” are not really made for cyclists either. They are made for walkers or mom and dad to go 5 miles an hour with the family or some chick on rollerblades. People walk those paths and crowd them up and punk teenage kids trash them with broken bottles. They arent a place for someone riding a bike at 25mph on a $5k bike.
You made a lot of statements that sounded very 1 sided and uneducated and unfortunatly I don’t listen to your show to have heard it or I would have called in.
i think that its funny because people fail to realize how much room a car has in a lane of traffic. Traffic lanes are twice the width of your car because people suck at driving. Meaning if the average car is 6’ wide then the average traffic lane is 12’ if you cant get by me in 12’ of lane then you shouldn’t be driving. People are retarded, a ten second inconvenience to pass a cyclist and this upsets people i admit myself that i can get frustrated by cyclists when i am a cyclist. but i guess ignorance is bliss…
I’ve also emailed Greater Detroit Media, the station owner, Beaumont Hospital, and Detroit Medical Center. I left Medilodge alone as it looks like they are more of a home for seniors.
Here’s a portion of what I sent them.
Deminski and Doyle refer to cyclists wearing “goddamn helmets”. Deminski and Doyle further expressed that they want to go “grand theft auto” on bicyclists. It appears that the DJ’s actually admit, on air, their personal desire to kill and commit violence against bicyclists.
Ironically, Beaumont lists “10 Tips for Bicycling with Kids” and “Bicyclist off Pain Medications, Back on Track With Acupuncture” in their pressroom.
Do people actually listen to that show? All the ridiculousness of their argument aside, these guys are just fucking awful. I honestly can’t tell if they’re trying to be funny or not. Man, that is some low-quality broadcasting talent there.
They are wrong, and I completly disagree with their generalised statements and approach to the issue.
However they do have some valid points, the main one being that many cyclists expect the same rights as a vehicle but then do no behave or obey the rules of being a vehicle. We as cyclists have to make sure we do our part in ensuring both cyclists and drivers are enducated and can co-exist on the same road.
They are wrong, and I completly disagree with their generalised statements and approach to the issue.
However they do have some valid points, the main one being that many cyclists expect the same rights as a vehicle but then do no behave or obey the rules of being a vehicle. We as cyclists have to make sure we do our part in ensuring both cyclists and drivers are enducated and can co-exist on the same road.
Yes, and yes. I agree wholeheartedly. I do, and most people do.
Quick update…after sending a couple quick emails, I have heard from two sponsors, who are taking action to move away from WCSX. One was overwhelmed with feedback and terminated the relationship today, maybe because of the issue, maybe because their inbox was full - doesn’t really matter, though. I also heard back fairly quickly from the WCSX program director, who - in summary - defended his broadcast team (how could he not? he has to have his employees’ backs, especially since he just fired the previous morning crew to hire these guys away from a competitor). I appreciate the repsonsiveness, although don’t agree with quite a bit of the response. He sent the following:
Thank you for your email. While I appreciate your concerns, I have to
Object to your accusation that Deminski & Doyle encouraged listeners to
Throw things at cyclists. Quite the opposite, they were surprised that
a law to prohibit this behavior had to be enacted, since it should be
Obvious that it’s unacceptable. Obviously, they are outspoken and have
Very strong opinions about their experience with cyclists in the Detroit
Area, and those experiences have been negative. We welcome your
Comments and the debate that their remarks sparked. I expect that they
will continue this conversation, and I invite you to call in to express
Your views.
This is a good example why it is so important for our population to follow traffic laws and ride in a courteous manner.
Their primary complaint was cyclists that dont follow the laws and also ones who refuse to get out of the way or ride on roads that they should not be on anyway (woodward). We all understand we have a right to be there but it does not always make it the best decision.
Just posted my comments on their website, also removed their station from my car radio, not that I ever listened to the stuck in the sixties station anyway. I heard enough of Boston and Deep Purple in the 70s! I hope that the station is learning that cyclists are a big block and are not that easy of a target.
Got a reply from McDonalds “Office of corporate ethics”. It’s not worth posting, as it was a CSR who didn’t listen to the clip, nor reply to any of the concerns. I’ve taken that reply and forwarded it to McDonalds regional office. I don’t expect much, but clearly I didn’t find the right person first time around.
I left my thoughts with them as well. I tried not to sound like a cyclist nut job, but who knows for those people. That segment still gets me upset when I’m on the road and it creeps into my mind.
I may have told them they got my vote for Douchebags of the year, stealing the vote from John Gosslin.
First off, sounds like these guys are still living in the 80’s. This is a prime example of lack of progressiveness in Michigan (maybe that’s why your state is dying?) (no offense to you guys who live there).
Secondly. I dissagree with the whole “We must follow the rules at all times”. We need to lobby to get the rules changed. Those rule were written for cars. As we all know a bicycle is VERY different from an automobile. Bike vs. Car collisions, 10 times out of 10 the Car wins. A cyclist blows a stop sign, and a car hits it, the car wins. Cyclists can really only do damage to themselves. Portland and Idaho have already passed “stop as Yield” laws, where cyclists only have to treat stop signs as yield signs (idaho even went as far as to pass a law where bikes can treat a red light like a stop sign, we’ve all been there, waiting at the light that will never change because you can’t trigger the sensor). I think this is a very valid change. A bike is most times moving slower into an intersection than a car. A bike takes more effort (or any effort) to get back up to speed. A bike can make better evasive maneuvers to miss collisions due to it’s light weight and small size.
As for the callers who always show up with the genius argument of “Bikes don’t have licenses and pay taxes”, How many people do you know that ride that don’t own at least one car, not to mention the sales, income, and property taxes that also pay for roadways (which cars are much more likely to do damage requiring repairs to).
Also, the reason you have insurance is to pay for someone else’s car if you hit them (at least the cheap policies). We have already been over the fact that it is pretty hard for a bike to really damage a car (although, I once cracked a windshield with my head!).
kind of scary there are still people (and probably a lot of them) in 2009 that think this way. Guess I am lucky to be living in “3 feet” Colorado. They also failed to mention the law now makes it legal for people cross a double yellow line to pass cyclists with 3 feet, and that it is legal (though maybe not smart) to ride two abreast unless a sign says not too. It also gives us freedom to ride as far to the right as we deem “safe”, thus allowing us to legally avoid glass and crap on the road. All the points brought up contention when the bill was being debated, and we heard most of the same arguments that were vented in that silly radio program. Some of my favorites were from our local sheriff who said it would be “too hard to judge 3 feet” to give people tickets. And motorists saying that now they had to risk their lives crossing the yellow line to just spare a stupid cyclist (of course they never seem to mind waiting to pass a tractor going 10 mph).
It would be interesting to challenge folks like that to ride on the roads for just a week, and see if their ideas and opinions changed. They might actually understand why cyclists do most of the things we do. And most times I don’t think standing your ground, and not backing down to motorists is really arrogance.
Thank you for your email. While I appreciate your concerns, I have to
Object to your accusation that Deminski & Doyle encouraged listeners to
Throw things at cyclists. Quite the opposite, they were surprised that
a law to prohibit this behavior had to be enacted, since it should be
**Obvious that it’s unacceptable. ** Obviously, they are outspoken and have
Very strong opinions about their experience with cyclists in the Detroit
Area, and those experiences have been negative. We welcome your
Comments and the debate that their remarks sparked. I expect that they
will continue this conversation, and I invite you to call in to express
Your views.
Director Of Programming
Doug Podell
I’m not sure which d-bag is speaking, Deminski or Doyle, but this is what one of them said in the MP3:
“But honest to God, how many people have seen a bicyclist and you would just love to lob something at their heads because, no seriously, I’m not condoning it, I’m not saying we do it, I’m saying hasn’t the thought gone through your head, because seriously how selfishly do some of these people ride their bikes.”
I’m sure after hearing this that someone out there will feel justified in throwing something at a cyclist, aiming for the head no less.
wcsx will now be removed from all radio presets. I new I should have done it when they got rid of J.J. and Lyne. I will also send an email to doug podell at wcxs.
This segment got me wondering - what do you guys think of having a system established for people having to get a license/permit to ride their bike on main roads (I am not talking about kids riding their Huffys around the neighborhood) where the speed limit is say 30 mph or above.
I think it would go a long way to help “legitimize” our presence on the road, and just might make cyclists think twice before doing jerkish things like running red lights. I always get annoyed when drivers honk at me because they need to wait for 10 seconds for a safe time to pass - I think to myself “this asshole can’t just WAIT?!” But if that asshole can wait for me, then I should be able to wait for a stop sign or a red light. I think some sort of basic licensing or permit system for bikes plus requiring questions on interaction with cyclists on state drivers exams would go a long way to making the roads a little more civil.
