Favorite/unfavorite radio sportstalk hosts

[pwdennis]

The Orlando area really added a second sports radio station to its otherwise undistinguished roster of radio stations.

740 AM carries local hosts during the morning and afternoon drive periods and from 6PM to 9PM. The rest of the time it carries the Fox Sports programming or Westwood One unless carrying live sporting events.

In the past 740 AM (or 540 AM before they swapped frequencies with another of the eight or so other stations owned by Clear Channel) carried ESPN programming or a mix of whatever independent and network programming they felt like carrying.

1080 AM carries mostly ESPN Radio programming.

My favorites (excluding the local programming) are Tony Kornheiser, and one I no longer can tune in locally, Papa Joe Chevalier. My unfavorites are Jim Rome and (another program no longer available in the Orlando area) Ferrell on the Bench. As you can tell by my selections, I tend to favor the more thoughtful commentators over the abusive ones

[Ytown Tribe fan]

Cleveland has Mike Trivisonno, who used to be a frequent caller to the Pete Franklin show.

If you wanted abuse, Pete was the guy to call. But he was knowledgable and a diehard fan in the Gabe Paul days.

Triv? Well, he's sticking up for Dolan and Shapiro, so I guess you could call him a diehard fan. He's not nearly as abusive as Pete used to be, although he sometimes tries.

[poorme]

Kornheiser is great. love him.
DC has John Thompson, the old G-Town basketball coach. he's worse than horrible.
Rome is smart, but the show is too annoying.

when I lived up in Maine I had to listen to the flatulent sports babe (remember her?) and papa joe. can't stand either. in winter I could get the FAN at night

chicago has a bunch of local guys that most out of towners would almost surely hate. There's this refrigerator repairman who got his own show, mike murphey, i love him.

[SmedIndy]

Gotta give a plug to Will Carroll's new best friend, Greg Rakestraw at ESPN 950 in Indianapolis. He actually concentrates on local issues and lets the national issues to ESPN, and doesn't get himself in the way of the show.

[Craig S.]

Tough question. At first consideration, I can think of so many bad ones, and so few who are good.

Jim Rome could be much better than he is. At one time, he had some good opinions that weren't formulated solely to get a rise out of others.

[SmedIndy]

I agree. At time Rome is great. But he's so programmed in his takes against the WNBA, soccer and racing that it detracts from everything. It's like he's afraid to have an open mind.

What scared me the most when he said he would forbid his child from playing soccer. That's probably one of the best games for a child under 10 to play.

[Ryan]

Originally posted by poorme
chicago has a bunch of local guys that most out of towners would almost surely hate. There's this refrigerator repairman who got his own show, mike murphey, i love him.

Ahhh, so you're a White Sox fan! That explains your earlier swipe! How can you possibly like Murph -- he's an original bleacher bum and the biggest Cub fan in town?

I used to love The Score, but IMO it's really gone downhill since McNeill went to ESPN. I do think Boehrs and Bernstein are the best show in town, though. Those guys are intelligent and consistently crack me up.

- Ryan

P.S. For me, Papa Joe Chevalier's show is like listening to Rush Limbaugh on really bad LSD.

[pwdennis]

740 AM in Orlando is typical of what one encounters with local talk show hosts. The morning crew of Charles Davis and Pat Clark (both also employed by the Sunshine Cablevision Sports Network) are solid and professional, never abusive. The afternoon drive host (and station program director) Marc Daniels is knowledgeable and opinionated, but although Marc himself is outstanding (probably the best local host I've heard) the surrounding cast is second rate (but not terrible).

The 6PM - 9PM crew of Jerry O'Neill and Mike "The Shot Doctor" Josephs is terrible, probably the most infantile sports cast I've everheard. They spend inordinate amounts of time insulting each other, and the rest of the time , the dialog is merely stupid. For whatever reason, O'Neill and Josephs bring out the worst in each other. Teamed with other co-hosts, I really like Jerry O'Neill. Now that the ESPN affiliate has started operations, I switch away to them come 6 PM

[spitball]

We don't get Kornheiser anymore in the L.A. market. We get Mike and Mike. I miss Tony. I love the Dan Patrick show. I know there's alot of Dibble haters here , but I think he's funny and honest. Not always right, but honest. After that is a local show hosted by Todd Donoho....hate him . Then it's Joe McDonald and Doug Krikorian(Long Beach Press Telegram). Joe is opinionated and really annoying. Doug has been covering sports here in L.A. for at least 30 years. He's ok I guess.
I used to like Rome, but Patrick blew him out of the water and Kornheiser overlapped his first hour.
By the way, Kornheiser's spoofs of Rome are CLASSIC.
OUT!

[cubfan33]

Rakestraw rules here in Indy. Anything's better than Mark Patrick, who's national now on the always excellent Fox Sports Radio (wink wink). Rakestraw's good because he can make even ME sound intelligent. BEST questions.

Kornheiser is awesome. I hate Patrick and Dibble, but that's just me. Mike and Mike leave me flat with their shtick, but nice guys. There's a GREAT guy in Louisville that interviewed me during the strike week of hell, wish i could remember his name.

Norm Hitzges is awful.

[johnny]

Kiley and Booms can be so bad I have to turn it off, or so funny that I wind up with tears in my eyes.

I like to hear Bill Walton's NBA reports...sounds like he just droped another tab, and gets so off course sometimes, talking about old concerts and whatnot.

[WiredTiger]

The sports radio market in Detroit is pretty crowded now. I actually have four stations to choose from.

I started off not liking Rome but he's grown on me and I listen to him a lot. I listened to Kylie and Boom for aout a week and couldn't stand to lsten to them anymore. I like ESPN radio. We get it sporadically here because they mix in local shows.

My favorite local show is Stoney and Wojo. My least favorte is the afternoon show that Kirk Gibson and Gary Danielson do. They never seem to have their facts straight and if you get them outside of football or baseball they don't have a good understanding of the games.

[poorme]

Originally posted by cubfan33

Norm Hitzges is awful.

wasn't he an original host of baseball tonight? that didn't last long.

[poorme]

Originally posted by Ryan
Ahhh, so you're a White Sox fan! That explains your earlier swipe! How can you possibly like Murph -- he's an original bleacher bum and the biggest Cub fan in town?


the guy knows baseball and I appreciate that. I don't really know why I like him, exactly. He's a nice guy/average joe type who doesn't get off on ripping people.

[KCBOOMER]

Can't stand Rome. He enjoys trashing people who don't come on his show. His humor, such as it is, appeals to a younger crowd.

Locally Kevin Kietzman has a superb radio show on 810 AM from 2PM to 6PM. He dominates the local airwaves. Can get rather full of himself at times though.

The biggest problem with all sports talk people is they each have two, three, four hours to fill up. How many times have you listened to them chatter away about an "unconfirmed report"?

[Allard]

Dan Patrick can be excellent at times, but he's just too politically correct to take sometimes. Countless times he has had Bud Selig down with a knife to his throat, and then lets him up and tosses him a creampuff instead of going for the kill.

They stopped airing the webcast during the commercial breaks, and it has really killed the show. The problem I have with Patrick is the same one I have with Kornheiser, that they will just go off and do an entire show about golf, or about the NBA, and its really hard to listen to three hours of Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant talk at work.

[ckash]

WTEM-980 in D.C has a show called the Sports Reporters (real original) that features regulars Andy Pollan (of TK's show) and Steve Saban (who has a FOX gig) plus other writers and/or broadcasters from the DC area and from USA Today. Makes for a good listen from 5pm to 7pm while stuck in the horrible traffic around here.

[Skip]

Originally posted by cubfan33
There's a GREAT guy in Louisville that interviewed me during the strike week of hell, wish i could remember his name. You remember the station Cubfan?? I'm guessing it was Joe Elliott or Paul Rodgers, probably the latter.

[CpUltravox]

Originally posted by johnny
Kiley and Booms can be so bad I have to turn it off, or so funny that I wind up with tears in my eyes. Chuck Booms got his sports-talk start on a cable tv talk show in Cleveland called More Sports and Les Levine. MSALL is very good - but - since they cancelled him on Fox Sports Ohio, he's only available to people who get Adelphia cable in Cleveland.

Booms used to crack me up, or make me want to throw a shoe through my TV, which, I guess is the point, because I always watched.

Does anyone know how to hear Booms in Ohio? It's odd he's not carried in the market where he got his start....

[poorme]

Any of you Indians fans remember a guy named Bruce Drennen? I think that's what his name was. I used to listen to him on WEEE when it got dark. He still around?

[CpUltravox]

Drennan does morning drive on AM-850 in Cleveland, WKNR. It's our sportstalk station.

It's also the station that has caused some of my most vocal anti-cleveland-fan rants.

http://www.sportstalkcleveland.com/shows/b_drennan.htm

[poorme]

when I lived in California, there was a psychopath that had a late night show on KNBR. he was like Jim Rome hepped up on speedballs. i think he got fired but wound up somewhere.

[SmedIndy]

That wouldn't be Ferrell, would it?

Does he still have a show? Does the Sports Babe?

[poorme]

Originally posted by SmedIndy
That wouldn't be Ferrell, would it?

Does he still have a show? Does the Sports Babe?

Scott Ferrell was the guy. I did an internet search and apparently neither of them are on the air anymore. tough business to be in.

[RichG]

Originally posted by SmedIndy
That wouldn't be Ferrell, would it?

Does he still have a show? Does the Sports Babe?

Ferrell lost his job a couple of weeks ago in the aftermath of his station revamping its schedule after a different show on the station got canned for broadcasting some guests having sex in a church.

I heard Ferrell a few years ago out of Atlanta but dropped him after two shows - I guess I wasn't his intended audience.

[pwdennis]

The last few mornings I have tuned in to Mike & Mike on ESPN's morning radio show. They are okay, a bit bland but they have had interesting guests.

One of the problems that a 24 hour sportstalk radio station has is in filling all 168 hours. 740 AM has some locally produced weekend shows that are real snoozers - shows on skin diving, golf and fishing (if you think fishing is dull television you should try listening to it on the radio). They also have a two-hour talk show on professional wrestling (or rasslin') one night each week (it moves around from day to day depending on the live sporting event coverage). Shows on auto racing can work but can also flop badly.

[WiredTiger]

Originally posted by poorme
Scott Ferrell was the guy. I did an internet search and apparently neither of them are on the air anymore. tough business to be in.

Ferrell on the bench aired in the Detroit area. It was a good one when you were in the mood for light sports entertainment. He was on late at night here and I used to catch him when driving home from somewhere. Not bad but I could see how he could get annoying. He'll pop up somewhere else I would assume.

[SmedIndy]

The rumor is in Denver, but locally, not syndicated.

[Ryan]

I forgot to mention my favorite sportstalk show of all time: The Bob Kemp Show, which aired overnights on One-on-One (now Sporting News Radio). Kemp was a former Vegas handicapper, and as such the talk stuck to dissection of games and matchups. The guy was hornery, funny, and brilliant.

When he quit, Sports Illustrated even mentioned it in its 'Scorecard' section, as the loss of one of the last remaining intelligent sportstalk shows.

- Ryan