Showing posts with label Sports-Talk Radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sports-Talk Radio. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Saturday, September 13, 2014
New York's Mike Francesa On WFAN King Of The Hill; Radnich On KNBR Not Even Close; Saturday Column
He's funny, smart, highly informed, knows his sports and is, occasionally, a pain in the ass too, which automatically makes him a legend in NY, which he is.
And the highest paid, at that. And while he sometimes slips off the curve and is needled for it, the fact remains Francesa still, for the most part, delivers knockout punches and gets plenty of attention.
I bring this up because every now and then some alien from another planet says the morning Radnich program on KNBR "is the best sports-talk show in the country." Not even close. No comparison. Granted, Radnich's enterprise is vastly different than Francesa and the Bay Area, obviously, is a far cry from New York City--still, Francesa, if you're a sports fan, is meat and potatoes while Radnich is more scrambled eggs.
For starters, Francesa doesn't need to pull the Don Rickles act every day like Radnich does--irritating as all get go and flush with repetitious bullshit; how many times can you stomach this: You have to have kids to be something; For the 99th time; Got the Bentley out to get the brakes checked, and on and on...Do we see a pattern here? Same old shit. Does Gary think you're a moron? No, but he insults and dumbs down his audience like they're a pack of Fremont idiots. Of course, the bulk of KNBR's beer and boobs demo is men, I get it, but the constant Raddy cackling with the two side-by-side Neanderthals is mostly empty.
On the other hand, Francesa is brick and mortar. Interviews galore, the best guests and engaging commentary and opinion spiced up with his own kvetching and yes, while he kvetches, he's still funnier than hell, all the while engaging also and best yet, doesn't lecture you on the importance of having kids and being responsible in life. Sometimes when I'm listening to Radnich it's as if Dr. Phil hijacked the program. Funny, I thought it was a sports program.
Give me conversational girth, mix it up a notch, don't do the same thing over and over, most of all, cut all the Shecky Green shit--every now and then, sure, it's funny, real funny in fact, but not when you know it's coming and becomes all too predictable and Raddy's act has become a stale rye bread with loads of baloney and velveeta.
I'm a steak guy. And Francesa is a
42-ounce Porterhouse with plenty of broccoli and hollandaise sauce. Solo too. It's an acquired taste but if you like simple, basic, yeah--again, --meat and potato-style sports-talk radio then Francesa's daily presentation is the very best.
Radnich has his advocates --including me at times when he does an interview, say with a controversial guest with a controversial topic, he shines, and for that is to be complimented. When he goes off the trail and meanders into the having kids bullshit, he loses me.
Yes, Francesa is king. In my opinion.
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Wednesday, September 3, 2014
How Does Jason Barrett, PD, at 95.7 FM The Game Keep His Job? All-Sports Station Continues To Swing And Miss; Advantage, KNBR
Which is all the more frustrating that 95.7 FM, ('The Game'), continues to flail away aimlessly, seemingly rudderless without a leader, without any sort of vision and programming run by a clueless radio retread.
The August ratings are out and once again, The Game has bottomed out. At this stage of the year that shouldn't be happening, not when you have a major league baseball team fighting for the playoffs, although sure, the A's are the second team in the market. And yes, the Raiders are mediocre at best, but still an NFL team.
95.7 relies on its sports-talk shows. Too bad PD, Jason Barrett, has no clue what the hell he's doing. Barrett somehow keep his job even though The Game's talkers keep being moved from one place to the other; shows have come and gone, other shows are in the wrong time slot. The best show on the station, Greg Papa and John Lund's, "The Wheelhouse" is lost from 12-3 PM --Damon Bruce should have that slot where he wouldn't be preempted by A's baseball.
And then there's this pure foolishness. An infomercial would be more compelling.
Then there's the morning show: a complete and useless failure. It would be nice that two of the three hosts knew something about sports, but why be so picky. Aubrey Huff, the ex-Giants jock has essentially quit the program and has now been moved to part-time status. Ric Bucher is on his way out. Chris Townsend remains but the show's future is in doubt.
All the while, again, despite its amateurish programming direction, The Game could and should beat KNBR in various parts of the day. The Game is smarter, more cogent and doesn't lob 140 thousand hours of commercials at its listeners like its AM competitor --greedy KNBR.
But The Game needs a better programmer. It wouldn't hurt to have a stronger and better signal too, but that's sort of uncontrollable. Too bad too. With some innovative thinking, 95.7 FM could be a vital sports-station listening device but as long as Barrett is running it, it has no hope.
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Radnich Rips Out of the Blue; KNBR Morning Tonsiler Comes Back After Severe Flu Illness; Says '103.7' Multiple Times on Air
Well, golly gee I thought we were all done with this.I tried.
That did me a lot of good, didn't it? Yavoy.
Gary Radnich returned to the airwaves Monday after a four-day bout with a severe case of the flu; severe enough to require a hospital stay and absorbing a "103.7" temperature. Yikes.
How do I know the Raddy's temperature? He said it about a hundred times on the air, which is fine given 103.7 is officially suckable and death-like.
He looked a little lighter too but his convalescence didn't preclude him from, out of the blue, leveling a few shots at yours truly and this blog.
Out of the blue. I think that's the Gary we all know and love. Gary can't stand a clean plate. I think he's infatuated with the needle card. It's not just me, mind you, there's others--media people, anchors, women weather forecasters, sports anchors, all at some point get the wrath of Raddy and I can't quite spell it out because I'm not a shrink but I do see some patterns.
I didn't hear the whole knock and it wasn't that much of a knock but a knock nonetheless way out of the blue. "I took a guy knocking me for six years and I survived", or something to that effect. He said it again and again. His partner asked to whom was he was referring to which we got another shot. Bizarre. Surprising too. I'm a naïve sob, aren't I? Don't answer.
As I've indicated numerous times here and elsewhere I finally decided to move on from the Gary story. Long past the derision because I think I stated my case and was ready to move on because how many times can you rip a guy who became Don Rickles and isn't too keen on the local sporting life. Frankly, as many times as he belittles sports and some of its conduits, its reporters, its own theatrics, I still find Gary relatively entertaining and funny. Sure, his out of place bizarros aside, he still commands the local domain whether its on the radio or TV. It's just that his shtick wears thin every now and then and just when you think you got him figured out, he goes off course. Maybe it's his secret weapon, his own vital insecurity showing off its king of emotional girth. Maybe it's just in his genes. His go-to identity audio DNA.
Meanwhile, back to coffee.
Welcome back Raddy.
It's so nice to have you back where you belong.
And of course it sounds as if you never missed a beat.
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