The Weekly Dis
Thank you for the first 365 days of support for local, independent, Disrespected Media
To celebrate our first anniversary, Disrespected Media is offering to double the price, cut it in half, and slap on a discount. Act now! Click on the button below to seize this ridiculous opportunity. I'm not even sure what will happen when you click, other than there's a discount. Tell everyone you know.
On Sept. 12, 2025, one year ago today, this website appeared with its first post, "Welcome to The Disrespected." It remains pinned near the top of the site along with "How I got here," another of the earliest pieces seen at TheDisrespected.com.
Happy anniversary to Disrespected Media and happy birthday to me.
Can I do that? Can I offer such wishes to myself? Absolutely. I can do almost anything I want in this space. Gannett can go to hell, which is clearly its aim.
True story: I was told by my old bosses at Ohio's Greatest Home Newspaper to cut back or even avoid writing columns on the Blue Jackets, a team I began covering in 1999, and the Crew, a team I started writing about in 2004. I took a buyout, hung out my own shingle, and focused on writing about the Blue Jackets and the Crew.
I can't remember having so much fun singing for my supper.
I promised subscribers three exclusive columns a week (M-W-F) and The Weekly Dis, free to all every Saturday. With a couple-three live columns thrown in, I've averaged a scoch more than that. Totals: 219 columns, including 51 editions of The Weekly Dis. There were two or three occasions when when a column was moved up a day, but the rhythm of four-a-week is yet to be broken.
Among other things I've discovered is that a hospital room can be a great place to work if you can ignore intravenous drips and aren't too weird about needles. Mostly, it's gloriously quiet, you know? I'm thinking of contracting another case of food poisoning so that my body dehydrates to the point where I can get back in there and jam. Remember Pachuca!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the dozen people who helped provide the wherewithal to get this thing airborne last summer, and to the one person who reached for his wallet months later, when things got really tough. You know who you are. I owe you. I also owe somebody a lasagna.
Raise a glass. Cin cin and grazie mille.
Thanks especially to the subscribers. Disrespected Media can't exist without you, and you're the best, and I can back up such a pander.
In January, I asked readers to chip in to get me to Florida to get to the Crew's training camp so I could get the first one-on-one with the new (and now former) coach, Henrik Rydström. The fundraiser lasted three days. That's all the time Crew fans needed to pass the hat. Extraordinarily touching, that was.
Mostly, I'd like to thank Mrs. Arace. This hasn't been an easy transition for the household, and certain measures were (and are) required to keep this enterprise going. Plus, she has to deal with the proprietor every day. Not an easy thing. I love you, B.
This year in Discasting
I started podcasting last November.
Back at the old place of employment on S. 3rd St., Aaron Portzline and I started a Blue Jackets podcast sometime in the aughts. We went on to record more than a thousand episodes.
It was a natural, then, that the first episode of the new Cannon Balls pod featured Porty, now a senior writer covering the Jackets for The Athletic. That episode hit Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms in mid-November last year.
Porty is a regular on Cannon Balls; he's been on 11 times, and is the reason some believe the program is soon-to-be-award-winning. He'll probably be back again this week as camp gets underway.
Among others to be featured include beautiful people like ESPN's John Buccigross (3X), CBJ color analyst Jody Shelly (2X) and Dallas Stars color analyst Daryl Reaugh.
There are 32 episodes of The Balls, as the kids call it, including four "Reign of Terror" episodes featuring three of my dart-throwing lads, Owen, Timothy and Matthew. Shout out to the boys, especially my Executive Producer and First Team Video Analyst Coach (Tim) and my Technical Director (Patrick).
Their World Cup work on The Crewcible podcast is sometimes referred to as "something beyond very good." There are 28 episodes of The Crewcible out there in the ether, with such featured guests as Apple TV MLS play-by-play voice Neil Sika (6X), Tom Condor Reed (6X), failed ACES Radio host Morgan Hughes (4X) and former USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter (2X).
Henrik Rydström did three one-on-ones with The Crewcible before he got shit-canned.
Earlier this year, I got my own YouTube channel up and running (YouTube.com/@TheDisrespected-614). The first video posted there is an interview with CBJ radio voice Bob McElligott on March 16. Just over four months later, McElligott was let go by the Jackets, who made the brand-damaging decision to simulcast their games. Of course, given that the Jackets are the most irrelevant team in professional sports, how much brand-damage can they do?
I've 135 videos – pods, press conference material, other stuff – up on my YouTube channel. There are also 209 shorts posted, including this one:
After 17 years as the CBJ radio voice, Bob McElligott was chopped by the team in July.
What's next?
What's next is, I need more money. Do what you can.
I hear the phrase, "More podcasts!" with frequency, and here's the thing about that: As much as I've worked it, I've yet to find sponsors for the pods. I need sponsors to continue to grow the business and make a living. There are weeks like this one, when there's life stuff going on and I am compelled to use my work time to write because the website continues to grow and make money. The pods continue to grow and don't make money.
My kids have suggested a Patreon setup, or something such like. My preference has always been to find sponsors so I have better control over ad content, which I want to limit.
Given that sponsors have been difficult to recruit at this point, I have to keep an open mind. And I'd appreciate any thoughts and comments that readers might provide below. On anything.
Once again, I'm having a blast. Mrs. Arace and I have to get through a change of address by the end of the month, which isn't terrific fun. But we're looking at it as yet another new adventure as Disrespected Media gears up for Year 2 – with a new dining-room studio!
Neil Sika has not been fired. Amen. He's the best.
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Michael Arace
