KFOG, RIP:  If you grew up in the Bay Area, around 1984, KFOG changed over from an all Musak/Elevator format to slowly become the heart of Bay Area rock n' roll radio.  It had a few years, here and there, where a program director took it on an odd turn, but it hosted any number of Bay Area radio institutions: 10 at 10 ("Ten Great Songs from One Great Year!"), Acoustic Sunrise, KFOG's Live from the Archives and one of the more intelligent morning shows.

Yesterday, Cumulus Broadcasting sacked everyone, near enough, and have gone to a no-host format. The same sort of music, nominally, but cheaper.  I don't listen to much music radio anymore, but over the 19 years since I've been back from law school and here in the Bay Area, KFOG was the only place I ever picked up on new bands or new songs, many of which became very dear to me.  And since our love of KFOG was one of those things over which Mrs. Earthling and I first bonded, many of those songs are the soundtrack of us.

And it's gone.

And, worst of all, today they ended a tradition that had lasted for the entirety of its modern format. At 5 pm, they played The Toyes "Smoke Two Joints" -- a thing that, at 14 or 15, seemed subversive and as I grew older was, in turn, silly, ironic, nostalgic, an anthem of the Bay Area and my love of home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfduFy26EE0

THE PENIS MIGHTIER:  No traditional Celebrity Jeopardy! this season, but a Power Players tournament will tape in DC in a couple of weeks with players including Louis C.K., Anderson Cooper, Al Franken, Jonathan Franzen, and Matthew Weiner.

LOOK, THE SITUATION IS LOT MORE NUANCED THAN THAT:  One of the delights of Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been his unabashed musical theater nerdery--following up on his discussion with Anna Kendrick about whether or not the Pitch Perfect movies are musicals, last night, he and Rachel Bloom explain (with singing, naturally) how "Anything Can Be A Musical."

THE HEIGHT OF MUGGSY BOGUES, COMPLEXION OF A HOCKEY PUCK:  People's Instinctive Travels, Low End Theory, and Midnight Marauders all occupied large parts of my brain for years upon years upon years, so it is with great sadness that I report that A Tribe Called Quest's Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor) has died at 45 from diabetes-related complications.

FREE THE SLOTHS:  With Zootopia (deservedly) crossing the $200M domestic mark this weekend, and likely to head well north of that, one would guess that Disney is trying to come up with ways to extend the brand.  Two I'll offer (and offer up your own in the comments):

• Zootopia P.D.--Animated sitcom on ABC, following a group of new recruits at the P.D., in the vein of Barney Miller or Brooklyn Nine-Nine.  Doesn't need to regularly feature any of the larger names from the movie, but could readily feature supporting characters and occasional cameos from Bateman and/or Goodwin.
• It's an easy addition to Animal Kingdom--I'm sure a meet and greet with Judy and Nick will be up by summer, but how about a dark ride akin to Toy Story Mania, where you accompany Judy and Nick and help them catch a bad guy?  It would help a family-ride-light park, though there's not a clean place in the park to put it.

TIPPECANOE AND HAMILTON, TOO: William Henry Harrison, the Musical!

TODAY'S TOM SAWYER:  What may be the best short quote from a magazine article I've read in a long time comes from this Washington Monthly article about the punk scene in DC:

When I told him we didn’t have much of a choice because our band had to play, all sense of urgency disappeared. Did we sound anything like Rush? And did we want to hear a bunch of stories about the dozens of Rush shows he’d been to? The answer to the first question was no. The second question was rhetorical.