I'm listening to KNBR and, for a change, not revolting.
Tim Montemayor is subbing for the other guys that I have chose not to listen to anymore because as dysfunctional as I am, I simply couldn't take those other guys.
"The Monty Show"sounds real. The host, "Monty," has offered sincere, textured, thoughtful prose on radio about the state of the 49ers, Raiders, and Warriors. Good stuff. For once, there's no shouting, no false shtick, no condescending, unfunny bits. It's interesting too, go figure.
I'm often criticized for incessant ripping of KNBR content. That doesn't apply here. Stop the presses, I like this guy. My only gripe is that, given "Monty's" audio clarity and entertaining performance on the day after Christmas, I don't think he's got a future at KNBR, unless, of course, talent counts.
Being genuine, not having to resort to inane sound effects, is a virtue at the leader.
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I listened for awhile-Monty on AM sounds not as nasally as he did on THEGAME. Or he's changed his act a bit. He did do the pro KNBR,pro Alex Smith is now God, bit. Funny that just a few short months ago Monty was ripping Radnich as a holy terror to work with..and now he's filling in for the old clown.
ReplyDeleteAnd more unChristmas cards to the SF Gate sports writers who seem to be almost all picket line crossing shills for the home teams-could Slusser or Rusty or Kevin be any more owned by the teams they "beat" over? I was thinking of how they all rip Rich for not haveing press passes. But when you sell yourself for cheap like they do,it makes getting "credentials" a joke gift. And same for Brandon Teirney-who only has to look at Eric Davis and his credentials and think who's a worse shill for the 49ers then him?
Jeez,to read Slusser BEAM over trades that are crippling the team..and SHE's President of the beat writers?-lol..oh,man. A joke.
i've listened to monte on khtk and 95.7. in those stops, he was awful....trying to be too loud, too angry, and too controversial.
ReplyDeletetoday he is killing it. just running a quality show. well organized and professional.
Why doesn't Cumulus move Kevin Radich over to KNBR? He's one of the most knowledgeable sports personalities in the Bay Area and has been for years.
ReplyDeletelistened to Monty for a half hour this morning and thought it was awful... reminded me of being in some bleak two bit town in middle America where people have no sense of humor and take sports way too seriously because they have nothing else going on in their lives...
ReplyDeleteBy accident I turned to KGO a couple of days ago and heard Bruce McGowan doing a sports report. Is he now fully onboard? I had not heard him ages. I used to enjoy his KNBR talk show, he was always friendly to callers and was informative.
ReplyDelete10:40 While I also get tired of seeing the A's constantly trading established players for prospects, Slusser is not alone in her opinion of this trade. Analysts from some of the main sports sites that I looked at were just about unanimous in saying that Beane pulled off quite a haul. These analysts had no connection to the Bay Area.
ReplyDelete11:20 Agree with you on McGowan. His termination from KNBR started their deterioration.
Agree. The Monty Show on KNBR was refreshing.
ReplyDeleteThe actual topic was SPORTS.
Change of pace from the King of Hollywood Gossip (9:00-noon).
Also heard Monty this morning. Does he always have to yell? He has the cadence of Limbaugh. Didn't think he engaged with callers very well either.
ReplyDeleteAlso heard McGowan on KGO, he seems to be trying to fit as much as he can in the time allowed, which results in a real bad segment. He should drop the scores, just tell us who won. Prone to stumbling on his own words and getting things wrong--as he did when he was with KNBR.
Hey Rich, What is your talent? Are you another ver of Gary Ratt? Passing on irrelevant gossip.
ReplyDeleteRich, You are not as dysfunctional as some of the readers of this blog.
ReplyDeleteBruce McGowan is pleasant enough and certainly knowledgeable but the current KGO sports anchors are much more engaging on the whole. Rich Walcoff sounds pretty comfortable as a general talk show host when I've heard him fill in and could easily anchor a sports talk show. Kevin Radich has always packed a punch as a kind of wild card that always surprises you with insight or humor. Both could run rings around some of the current fare on KNBR.
ReplyDeleteSo what happen to the big shake out on KNBR, the blowhole leader, too much negative press on KGO, so they got gun shy? Still surprised they kept wind bag Ralph who does not follow sports anymore.
ReplyDelete1147-Those posts were from Ownership friendly trolls. No one with a shred of respectability has defended the trading of Geo. It's beyond any strategic reason..and is strictly a more money for Beane and group, based move.
ReplyDeleteRead BANGS Joe Stiglich who has traced the last half dozen years of Beane's pitching trades...at least 4-6 all stars are on other teams,while the A's at this moment have only the present minor league inflated stats of "prospects"..and as Lowell Cohn pointed out-so what? THEY will be traded IF they turn out be a star or two in the bunch. IF they ever turn out.
S
Gary Ratt Thinks only his kids should EAT! Stern, Linbahhh and Gratt We Shit on ALL of U
ReplyDeleteThe comments made about me aren't that much off base. Sometimes I do try to be just myself, what young people today call an
ReplyDelete'old school' sportscaster, (I'm not sure what that means!) but I also sometimes push myself into trying giving too much info in a short period of time, because I don't want to cheat the listeners. I agree... This can lead to sounding too frantic and making an occasional flub...not good! Slowing down and not shouting
(like most of us radio sportscasters are wont to do), is probably a good alternative!
But I still believe that you shouldn't always have to be 'edgy' to make your point. Some sports fans (most that I know) don't need to hear my opinion when I'm giving the sports news..they just want the facts, the scores and the who, where, what and how. (What a novel concept!)
And I truly believe that radio could still use those kind of announcers once in awhile in sports. It just seems as if today everyone wants to have some sort of gimmick,
(i.e. Chris Berman with his "WHOOP!' and
"HE COULD... GO.. ALL... THE... WAY!" It sounds too clownish and self aggrandizing!
But Howard Cosell started all this nonsense back in the 1970s, (he was also extremely bright however, much more so than most of the rest of us as he was constantly reminding us!) and the noisy, edgy style (think Jim Rome baiting QB Jim Everett into attacking him on his TV show back in 1992) has evolved into something different and sometimes sophomoric and self-centered.
It kind of reminds me sometimes of the big winter waves some of us surfers try to ride at the beaches here in Northern California;, almost out of control, and they crash down hard and occasionally knock you silly! Not fun!
The best sports announcers are still the really solid radio play by play guys; Jon Miller,
the late great Bill King, the retired Lon Simmons and Hank Greenwald, and Greg Papa
(when he's not overdoing his "TOUCHDOWN...RAIDERS!") calls. And Ted Robinson is solid on the 49ers broadcasts too, while Dave Flemming is also coming along nicely! 'Flem,'
Ted, and Papa should continue to be around here for a long, long time!
I like Bruce's list, but I think it should include Ken Korach too.
ReplyDeleteThe best sportscasters and radio personalities for that matter, manage to both entertain AND inform. You'd better be entertaining or bring something else to the table because people can get the scores anywhere if they need to know. 2 minutes of "7-3, 23-7, 14-6" couldn't be more boring. And spitting numbers out at breakneck pace is simply unlistenable.
ReplyDeleteRich, please tell me what you enjoyed about MONTY?
ReplyDeleteThe 49ers were just coming off their most important win with a tough battle in Seattle and all he did was do a rip job, until about 45 min into his show when 49er corporate called KNBR and said Whoa Baby?
His rant on Monta Ellis "must be traded" was equally horrific.
Rich, you ripped the shit out of Monty when he was subbing on the Game, make up your mind!!!
ReplyDeleteMiss Bruce Macgowan on KNBR; thoughtful,intelligent,too decent for sports talk.It was amusing when he would become exasperated with Pete Franklin, who I thoroughly enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteThanks to some of Rich's readers for the nice comments, and I don't mind the criticism from others who didn't care for my style. You can't please everyone.
ReplyDeleteDoing sports updates is fun.
but it's not the job I'd want to do for a full time living if I had my druthers. KGO has been nice enough to have me in as a backup from time to time the last few years, and the folks there in the newsroom are all first-class pros as well as good people.
I do agree that both Walcoff and Radich are very talented guys and should get more opportunities. I am good friends with Rich who's one of the better and more talented folks in our business, and I thoroughly enjoyed working with 'The Rat' back in our KNBR days, particularly when we co- hosted a weekend baseball show before and after Giants games back in 2000 when they had just moved into Pac Bell and won the NL West.
The best jobs, as I might have mentioned earlier, are really the radio play by play gigs which are tough to come by.
Working in TV sports is a lot of fun too (I worked in Eureka and Portland, Oregon doing TV sports back in the mid and late 1970s,) but I was lucky enough in 1989 to hook on with KNBR and then get to work in my hometown covering my favorite teams for the next 17 years. Lots of good times with the Niners, Giants, A's, Warriors, Cal, Stanford, and of course, the Rai-duhs!
I'm still involved with them, co hosting their pre and post game radio shows on LIVE 105..we've got a great crew with Jason Ross from KTHK radio in Sacramento, and former Raiders
George Atkinson, David Humm and Bill Romanowski all working with us on the air).
Check us out on Sunday at 11am before the Raiders/Chargers from Oakland.
As Rich always mentions in this blog, radio is the most personal, conversational and intimate medium for the both listener and the broadcaster.
It's really a 'theatre for the mind,' and those who are good at it like Michael Krasney of KQED and Ronn Owens of KGO know how to use that medium to get the audience fully engaged.
And I agree with one of your posters Rich, who said I should have added Ken Korach to the list of really fine local local sportscasters. Ken is also a prince of a guy and is sometimes unappreciated since so few people seem to pay much attention anymore to the poor A's.
The good news about the A's is that Bed Selig is finally going to give them permission to build a new park in the south bay. I wish they would stay in the east bay (for selfish reasons), but it doesn't look like a ballpark there will ever happen. Too
bad, as that could really give the slumping east bay economy a boost!
Happy holidays everyone!
Hey Bruce Radich laughed when you were fired.He does not take your phone calls. He also was so happy for Fitzs when he back stabed Papa out of WARRIORS tv gig.
ReplyDeleteBruce, have always loved your work, especially back in the day when you and Hank were THE fabric of Sportsphone 680. Hank had a show called Monday Night Quarterback, where a guest came into the studio's and hosted the show with him while the game was on TV, and he would then take the guest host to Rusty Scuppers for dinner.
ReplyDeleteYou and Hank are the best.
Also Susan Slusser said today that the slam dunk move to SJ is no longer a slam dunk. SFGate.com
Susan Slusser will never write a critical piece about the Giants.
ReplyDeleteNo one at the Chronicle will ever critize the Giants for fear of losing their job.
All of the Chronicle sports writers are freighten of the Giant's management.
The A's will be remain in Oakland for at least another few years (probably five minimum). Their payroll is relatively low compared to most MLB teams, and they got $30 mil from the other clubs
ReplyDeletethrough revenue sharing.
How can you feel sorry for Lou Wolff or Donald Fisher? If they bit the bullet and decided to keep some of their top players, they might not alienate the fans. If you're a true hardcore A's fan, what's the point of supporting a team who's management:
a.) Doesn't want to stay in Oakland (yes, I know they say they 'tried' to work things out for a ballpark there, but they didn't try hard enough!)
b.) Continues to be run on the cheap with a merry go round of mediocre, journeymen non- entities who come and go and young players who know one recognizes (until they get good like Gonzalez and Cahill and then they get traded!
And good luck trying to get a ballpark built anywhere in this economy!