By now, you all know that the Eric Byrnes experiment is a flat-out embarrassment on KNBR, but even so, I'm hoping "Byrnsie" is a keeper because when he's on the radio after the SF Giants' baseball game, I like listening to him, because, as you know, the masochist I am, there's nothing more orgasmic than listening to a mid-30's white guy, ex-ballplayer from Half Moon Bay, CA try desperately to sound and act like a young, hip-hop inner-city kid.
Byrnes is horrible, granted, but he's entertaining, well, gruesomely entertaining; the exagerated, false, caffeine, (I'm hoping),- induced, fake post-game staccato. Byrnes tries to sound as if he's a product of the vibe era, but he forgets he grew up in a town of mostly white, well-to-do folk who wouldn't know Bruno Mars from the planet Mars.
And his dumb, high-pitched voice reeks of indelible fakeness. Like the idea of a suburban Simi Vally duo trying to dance to Usher on "Soul Train." Byrnes is trying to appeal to "The Crib" crowd, but he hasn't got out of Mayberry yet. Maybe he should concentrate on a map.
His baseball knowledge is fairly credible, after all, he played the game. But his analysis gets muted by the overload amounts of fake rants, over-pitched verbal, god-awful displays of bathroom humor and the usual Knibber sound drops of flushed toilets, (for bad, stupid callers), and the sophomoric audio clips of a beer poured, (for good calls, get it?--ha ha).
The end result is another train wreck on the Leader. The flares have been put out and people are tuning in just to watch the side-show. Byrnes stole $30 million from the Arizona Diamondbacks; you'd think he may have invested about $500 of that just to get some good advice as to how to conduct a radio show. Not.
Brynes is a phony too. Just listen to him. Better yet, do this: call in his show sometime next week and flush your toilet on him.
*Follow me on Twitter
Yeah,hearing Byrnes defend Zito and Alex Smith is a hoot. He's got the Arizona hold up on his mind all the time.
ReplyDeleteHis last wacked out appearance on Comcast really made an impression almost three months ago now-they haven't had him back. He has the town drunk/substance user at the bar sound, down pat.He almost slobbered on Barry Tompkins as he rambled. Good thing Ann Killion wasn't there-Eric would have asked her if she wanted to see Eric's friend " Little Willy".
Another Lee Hammer "find".
You know -KNOW- that now that Arizona is a winner without him,Byrnes is telling somebody his heart is for the Diamondbacks. He had no ties to the Giants.
ReplyDeleteThe Giants should have watched Byrnes real close..he has spy type written all over him. "Stolen signs Byrnes".
In general I agree, though I'd add for many folks, there's nothing wrong with "Mayberry", and "The Crib" needs to be cleaned out of all the material the infants can't manage to get a handle on through self control...
ReplyDeleteDino Costa is the very best sports host in America.
ReplyDeleteBar none. He can talk candidly and balls to walls about any topic, including a fearless debate with Ronnie Lott the other day on how the NFL has lost it's way with so many rules that favor the offense.
Heard two Bay area calls yesterday on the show,oh yea, sorry it's only available on XM Sirius.
After a fast start of much praise from Radnich...Raddy is dead silent on mentioning Byrnes. Everybody else around the Giants,Raddy kids..but he hasnt said a thing about Byrnes in months.
ReplyDeleteIf its the usual infighting,that means Byrnes made a Radnich crack about how much he knows baseball.
Garry hates when players who have played do that.
Just a educated KNBR guess. But,he hasnt said a thing about Byrnes is a fact.
Byrnes IS an embarassment. I've stopped tuning in because I don't want to lose any more brain cells. He can't stop screaming into the mike. And he's hit the limit on talking about himself or his career over and over and over. He hit bottom when he spent 15 minutes immediately after a game talking about how someone left a brown log in his health club pool, and how bummed he was because he had to get out and the management had to close the pool to sterilize it. If you have a 14 year old mentality, you're down with Byrnsie. Otherwise, an absolute waste of air time...
ReplyDeleteHe is knowledgeable about sports and baseball in particular, but his "act" on the radio comes off as contrived. I kinda wonder if he has his eyes on L.A.. . . and possibly FOX radio.
ReplyDeleteIs there anyone under the age of 60 Lieberman likes?
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with this post more. "Byrnsie" is a total embarrassment. Last year I thought anyone would be better on the Giants post-game show than F.P., but apparently there was more to scrape out of the bottom of the barrel. "Byrnsie" is so horrifically annoying I can't listen to him for more than 5 seconds. He's a must-change the station kind of guy. I love my Giants, I hope next year KNBR can find a guy who can talk to the audience with like we have brain cells.
ReplyDeleteI like Eric and enjoy his insights on the game, but his frenetic, forced manner which is too over the top is a real turn off. Why do you have to yell some much Eric? We can hear you!
ReplyDeleteI guess that he wants to attract a wider audience, including the attention deficeit crowd of 20 somethings who spend more time scanning their computer and cell phone screens, texting and tweeting instead of actually having a conversation! What a crazy mixed up world
it's become!
But it's another brilliant Lee Hammer move!
I don't know how Hammer keeps his job!
As unlistenable as 'Byrnsie' sometimes is, I'd rather listen to him than that nonsense that's being offered over on that new FM station. I heard that their initial ratings suck, but then that's no surprise, given the fact that they hired mediocrities from outside the bay area who know nothing about our history or the sports organizations around here. They come in and act as if they're going to push listeners in their direction, but I haven't heard much positive feedback on from anyone since they starting doing sports. And when their new Program Director hires people based on their ability to tweet and text,
ReplyDeletecalling one of his hires Dan Dibbley, "a social network phenomenon!" what does that say about their standards of hiring? All you have to do is listen to any of their bland and repetitive programming and you'll understand what I'm saying here.
These certainly aren't good times for the local broadcast media, especially when it comes to the quality of local sports radio. Give me the 1980s or 1990s anytime! At least those folks on the air in those days sounded professional not juvenile, had credibility and knew what they were talking about!
Last time I listened to KNBR after 7 PM was when Damon was there. Hire a sports broadcaster!
ReplyDeleteWhen a host is extolled for being a great social media maven, you know they have offer very little else to offer. The problem is good hosts don't grow on fucking trees, they must have some instinct & show biz flair. Unfortunately for the most part KNBR and the new Sports FM station is filled with boys instead of men. Too watered down & bland, the new sports FM sounds like a fit in Sacramento not SF.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that.! But Lee Hammer and the Dickheads at Cumulus wouldn't know a good broadcaster if one fell from the sky and landed in their laps! They'd rather offer jobs t o dysfunctional, unprofessional twits like 'P-Con' and 'the Giggler.' No wonder they suck!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with 5:37I could care less about a radio personality's "social networking skills". I only want to hear good radio. I'm not twitting or fbooking while I'm driving!
ReplyDeleteFYI, Rich, FOX asked Glen Kuiper to carry their regional coverage of the A's-Rangers game. FOX used another analyst instead of Fosse. Just thought I'd scare the daylights out of you, LOL.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is KNBR. They kinda suck.
ReplyDeleteRich, Maybe Byrnes is over-caffinated because he has 3 kids under the age of at2 1/2n at home (one is a newborn). I would do anything to get away from that chaos. It's true his act is pretty phony. I used to like listening to him but when you're a blond, blue-eyed guy in his mid-30's from Woodside/Atherton, it's hard to buy the hip-hop crap he dishes out. I've had to tune out. I his voice it worse the fingernails on a chalkboard.
ReplyDeleteByrnes is awful and an embarrassment to the station. That whole station is pretty bad. It's all Giants, 49ers and commercials or PSAs. There has to be fewer than 30 minutes of sports talk per hour between the 20-20 rehash, ads, etc. Yeah, 95.7 may be a little juvenile in going squarely after KNBR, but the offer a far greater number of topics/teams and still have plenty of 49ers and Giants talk. They were smart enough to understand that trying to create an East Bay station would have been a death knell. I like A's and Raiders, but I'm interested in giants and 49ers. Murph and Fitzgerald can come off a's condescending and Mac and Brooks are tools. Ralph and Tom? No thanks. The only one worth a damn is Radnich. I like that money is being thrown into 95.7 efforts. It'll be interesting to see how this all unfolds in the next year. At the very least, Byrnes will be gone. If anything, 95.7 will hopefully force KNBR to take a hard look at itself. It's been stagnant for years and their continuous, over-the-top fawning over the Giants has been ridiculous. I wouldn't be surprised if they brought a new pd back or maybe the return of Agnew.
ReplyDeleteLook at the degradation of the Sportsphone slot...Fitz (when he was good and not so cocky years back), Krueger, Bruce, FP and now this mess. I'd rather have any of those guys instead of Byrnes. Let him go back to MLB network and run into fake walls permanantly! @5:37 pm, your dead worng about 95.7. At least they talk sports instead of anothe pop-culture rehash!
ReplyDeleteWHAT? NO ode to the opening of football season?? c'mon Rich.
ReplyDeleteThis is the time of year when the refs from red states see the Raiders silver and black,and see all that's wrong with society,youth,and America..and throw those hankys.
btw,this same post, message, has been deleted on every other sports blog.
Counting on Rich here....
but Byrne is buddies with Zito!
ReplyDeletewhat a tool.
Lets see how 95.7 is once the A's are done besides weak reception in San Jose they have the terriable Yahoo Sports Radio and no live action sports to air. They should have picked up an Nfl radio package or something to attract listeners.
ReplyDeleteWish tom tolbert would get the ax his ending of the show is crude to say the least and makes ralphs one tolerable.
I was enjoying this post until you used Bruno Mars as your example of inner city street cred... You kind of made yourself look as lame and out of touch as you were trying to make Byrnes look... the crappy mainstream hip hop music Byrnes plays is actually the type of music that suburban white teenagers listen to in places like Half Moon Bay...
ReplyDeleteRaddy today said that he's "recovering". Recovering he said to Bill(Bungerhole) in the elevator as Raddy told the story, because of some recent pairings that were made.
ReplyDeleteActually ,Radman is happy because unlike being the "hasbeen" Damon Bruce called him,Raddy is a "stillbeen". Bruno and Bruce and Dibs may have been sent away..but Raddy is still going. And he lets Kate Scott know it.
95.7 has to let Bernstein go. He and Lund sound like two guys at the Golf shop being smart asses. Just too much fast talking. Too much. Much too much. Makes you turn it off too much.
ReplyDeleteAnd the alternative at that time is Raddy's "And my line has always been ,Larry"....
Wouldn't take much to break KNBRs grip..just give listeners a hand 95.7...
Krueger has gotten really good at laughing into the microphone, which is about all he's allowed to do. Seems like whenever he tries to give a somewhat serious sports input, he's immediately talked over , by Radnich.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Byrnes goes, who knows how much longer he wants to do Sportsphone. Is he really in it for the long haul on Sportsphone, or will he do like F.P. did earlier this year and take a full-time MLB gig, whether it’s an opportunity to be a lead host or have a bigger role on MLB Network, or if he gets an opportunity to be a color analyst for an MLB team. I just don’t think Byrnes will be able to talk about football or basketball or even hockey consistently, after the Giants season is officially over. Some nights last week, he kept saying that he was going to talk football and basketball, but he kept talking baseball, which I don’t mind since I like baseball, basketball, and football, but what happens if a caller wanted to talk basketball or football with him, but didn’t get a chance to?
ReplyDeleteYes, like F.P., baseball is Byrnes’ strong suit as well since he also played the game, but, will Byrnes be able to talk about the Niners and football full-time after the Giants season is officially over, or the Warriors and basketball full-time if there is an NBA season this season?
F.P. couldn’t really do that last year when he hosted Sportsphone. He did and he tried, but you could tell that his knowledge was a little limited on other sports. F.P. is a baseball man.
But yeah, sometimes you wonder how long Byrnes wants to do Sportsphone. Byrnes has actually been ok so far. It took a little while to get used to him, but he’s been ok, even though I still think Sportsphone hasn’t really been the same since Damon went to 1050 last year. But yeah, Byrnes is ok. He actually does have passion for the Giants since he grew up a Giants fan but, he would probably do better on an earlier time slot. You kind of need to have a host like Damon or Larry Krueger to host Sportsphone.