Stephen Anderson's Twitter Plea To 300

Stephen Anderson’s appeal to fans to help boost his follower count on Twitter appeared to pay off on Thursday as the number finally hit the half way point at 250. The talk show host has been on a campaign to get his number of followers over 300, offering to be a part of team follow back and reaching out to well-known names in the attempt to boost the count. And while many responded to his call, others began a counter campaign to try and convince those already following the host of BTR’s Round The Bases to switch sides, managing to knock enough followers off to bring the numbers back to 242 within hours of the original goal being reached.

Anderson’s campaign to boost his followers saw him reach out to friends and fans on Twitter in the hopes of accessing their fan base:

"Hey - @craig_in_hd can you help me reach #Club300 #BritInTexas"

Anderson as of Friday needs just 50 followers to reach his goal of 300.

California Fantasy -- Of a Live Grammy's Broadcast

     Why didn't CBS broadcast the Grammy Awards live coast-to-coast on Sunday night?

     Because they believe it is more profitable to air a tape delay live on the West and Pacific time zones.

    They could be right about that, however the business decision angered viwers on both coasts last night that saw a record 39 million viewers. Many viewers took to Twitter to voice their anger and frustration.

    Part of the frusturation was due to the fact that Grammy producers had to scramble to change the awards to honor the late Whitney Houston who passed away the night before and Jennifer Hudson was going to sing a tribute song in her honor.

   The Oscars, Golden Globes, and the Emmy Awards have all been broadcast live coast to coast in the past. However, CBS has always shown the Grammys live on the East coast and tape delayed on the West coast and did exactly that during Sunday's broadcast.

      The BTR host Stephen Anderson, who was not able to watch the show live took to Twitter to describe his anger. He called the delay "absurd" and "pointless." He asked his 236 followers who follow him, "Why doesn't CBS have a mobile app to watch the Grammys live online?"

    Some people did stream the show illegally, but others found a more creative way to watch.

     CBS refused to comment on the tape delay, but did say more viewers do watch when it is in a tape delay situation. They were right, as the show averaged 27.7 million per hour.

   As for Mr. Anderson, he joked on Twitter: "I'm going to ban my BTR show from the East coast. That'll teach 'em."

Stephen Anderson To Be Honored

   For those who aren't familiar with Radio Center it is a celebration, honoring the unique mixture of international radio cultures. For its 2012 celebration, it has chosen to honor BTR's Stephen Anderson during its celebration.

As his colleague, I must say a huge congrats to Stephen and his entire staff. He has done an amazing job here at BTR and year two has begun. He is nicknamed the "Brit in Texas" so in my book, he has the internationial flavor (;

Sara La Touf calls out Stephen Anderson: "You Love Flirting With Your Guests"

   Last night, BTR's Stephen Anderson found himself, as he celebrated his one year anniversary in the role of the interviewee when Sara La Touf confronted Anderson about his aggressive - and sometimes flirty interview style.

"What would you like your epitaph to say?" La Touf asked, followed by asking "I've experienced this, but why do you flirt with your guests?"

Anderson responded with surprise, "You've experienced that?" to which La Touf responded, "Yes, I have."

Anderson said it was a good interview technique, and it helps if their attractive as he made one more flirt attempt at La Touf.

Stephen Anderson Has Eventful First Year At BTR

     SAN ANTONIO, TX-- After beginning his new show last year, it only took 14 days for Stephen Anderson's vision of his new show to crash with the reality of the world.

     He was on a car ride back to San Antonio with his producer Samantha Garcia and an hour after they got back both their cell phones were buzzing with text messages with the news of the uprising in Egypt. Garcia turned to Anderson and said, "You've always wanted to go live on air. This is the night it happens."

    So began the eventful first year that saw Anderson change the entire format of his show and do much more in-depth interviews. As well as interview CBS Big Brother's Shelly Moore, quit "Minute By Minute Sports" and see his reputation shoved into a Casey Anthony audio scandal in his home town of Austin.

    Even after all that, he survived. Anderson may have not lived up to the hype of a dangerous show, but he has not failed either. "Round The Bases" is up 7 percent over this time last year, and it is attracting more younger listeners. He marks his first year anniversary next week with an appearance by Sara La Touf. This week he interviews Spurs Sports & Entertainment's Andrew Monaco.

     "It isn't successful as I'd like it to be," Anderson told me in a interview this morning. "I'd like things to be better, to get the ratings even higher, and we believe that this is the year to put the petal to the metal. But am I happy with how we did in our first year? Yes, I am it would be tough for the critics to say we have done poor when the ratings are actually up."

    Anderson's biggest threat involved his past. Before even going on air entered his mind, he was very vocal about anything and everything. He faced accusations that he made death threats involving Florida mom Casey Anthony during her trial. Anderson insisted he never has made any type of comments towards Anthony and appeared via Skype at a meeting in December.

    Anderson called the meeting "annoying" and a waste of his time. "It made me laugh when people said that BTR had no idea about my past, but of course they did. They asked me, 'is this going to cause a problem?' and I responded no of course not."

     "BTR believes that Anderson has had a strong first year, and despite his scandal his listeners rate has gone up," producer Samantha Garcia said.

     The news this year was a first for Anderson. Including the The Arab Spring, the devastating tsunami in Japan, deadly tornadoes and Osama bin Laden's killing. The taped shows vs. live show numbers have been the opposite than what Anderson expected. It reached the point where one guest texted Anderson and asked him 'When are you going to air my interview?'

     Garcia, Anderson's producer and cousin said she hopes the show will have fewer swings and misses differing each week and shorter interviews will be the main point this year. It will give Anderson the chance to show his personality.

    A very busy news day was the main point behind Anderson's decision to leave "Minute By Minute Sports." (Thomas Vega is his replacement) On that day, he spent an afternoon at the AT&T Center covering the San Antonio Rampage hockey game and spent some quiet time to himself afterwards. Then went back down to cover more of the game.

    "As fun as it was though, I knew this year was going to be busy," he said. Do I really want to be covering a Spurs game on Super Tuesday during an important election year? The answer is no I don't."

Stephen Anderson's 2012 Resolution: Be More Like Brian Williams

    One nice thing about someone being successful is the way it shuts up your critics. Nearly one year ago, Stephen Anderson took a risk and geared up to begin a brand new weekly talk show. How could Anderson, a former sports columnist, and school talent show critic, host his own weekly talk show in primetime wondered just about everyone. Very quickly, he increased BTR's ratings at 10pm by 21% overall.

    "I don't get asked about it much anymore," said Anderson on Friday at a lunch with his staff as an early gift as they hit the one year mark. "Our overall feel is a good one, we made a nice splash in the ratings and that's great. However, can we get better? Of course we can."

In order to accomplish that, Anderson has a plan to wean the show out of its weekly dependence of booking big guests or breaking news by making it a "more structured" setting with regular segments that listeners know to expect. "You will see a lot more writing coming to the show and my personality will leave its mark on the show." His role models for future success: "Nightly News with Brian Williams" and "Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Anderson said that Brian Williams and Jay Leno are his favorite two talk show hosts to watch on T.V.

Some of the attention that Anderson got this past year has not all been good. He called it "a tad annoying" that the Casey Anthony tape scandal has shaped the public's views on giving opinions live on the air and free speech. Anderson recently gave his speech at the Williamson Meetings to speak out about the scandal and came out sharp-tongued and testy in his Skype video. "It was just a big distraction I didn't need," he says. "It was dumb to bring me into it, but I don't blame anyone."

One thing Anderson has done this past year, possibly more than anyone else in the radio business is get his name out in the public. Twitter is a topic Anderson, who has over 200 followers, can talk about at great length. He recently got into a high-spirited back and forth beef with fellow radio host and and tweeter Justin McRoberts, teasing him about his ratings and election coverage. "I love to get him going," Anderson says. "He is so easy to pick on and that makes it even more fun."

Anderson likes to respond to his online critics not by words, but by retweeting their insults to him. He likes the ones with spelling and grammar errors the best. "If they call me a dick and spell 'dick' D-I-K, then bingo because then they become the real joke, not me," he said.

At the end of lunch we talked about everything, well almost. A little known secret about Anderson is that he likes to sing karaoke. I asked him which song he likes to sing and yes, he gave me an answer: "I get very embrassed to sing "All about tonight", which symbolizes his career so far as a journalist.