Radio Sweethearts

Thank God someone finally got Bob to put his shirt back on.

Throughout the duration of the contest to design “On the Media’s” first T-shirt, Bob says he’s hosted the show topless (which, ew). 

It’s to the credit of Cincinnati, Ohio’s Phil Mastman that he entered the contest, with a design prominently featuring our favorite weekly bit of Bob Garfield being Bob Garfield – “Edited by Brooke.”

For his efforts, “On the Media” will be producing his T-shirt, and he got interviewed by Brooke and Bob – during which, I’m pretty sure, there were some jokes meant for us: Mastman asks Bob about what he calls the “smarmy” way he says “Edited… by Brooke” (we call it longing).

Bob, as when the Bryant Park Project asked him about our blog, responded by saying “Phil, I’d like to accomodate you, but I just can’t tell you everything. Because, truthfully, this is The Love That Dare Not Speak its Name.”

Turns out the longing wasn’t longing, but was actually the product of the contentious relationship Bob and Brooke had years ago as reporter and editor. Which is sort of disappointing. Mastman, you ruined our fun.

Sort of.

His shirt design actually launched something of a flame war in the comments.

I say “something of a flame war” because, well, this is an NPR-affiliated blog. The flame war seems to be, in fact, quite measured and mature in real-world terms. In NPR terms, the controversy was inflammatory enough for OTM’s senior producer Katya Rogers to add her own comments. Three times:

Hi all – I’m the senior producer of OTM and as such I am going to take the blame for this mess. First I’ll explain how it all went down, then I’ll beg your forgiveness.

I won’t ruin what “how it all went down” entails, but suffice to say, its mundanity is kind of hilarious. Still, people disagreeing with the choice of shirt was traumatizing enough that Rogers added in her last comment:

I hope you all can overlook this, our first (and likely last) attempt to have a t-shirt design competition. Now we’ll go back to what we do best – producing our weekly show.

All of this just makes me want to say: It’s a T-shirt, people. It’s being sold to raise money for public radio. It will not be your big break into the design business. It could have been better, maybe, but I’d have to see proof of that first.