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1250 lineup change

P

Parttimer

A subtle but interesting change at 1250.... Stan and Guy are cut back to a 2-hour show, 10A-noon, and 1250 shifts from carrying Tirico and Van Pelt to carrying Colin Cowherd from the network 12-2. Herd's schedule on the network changed recently... he used to do a 9-10A hour that was only heard on the west coast (he's the morning show on 710/ESPN in LA, among others), and he ended at 1PM. His noon hour tended to be a throwaway before... now it's like he's starting a new show at 12 because he picks up several affiliates noon-2 in this scenario.

I think he's much more entertaining than T&VP, and he's a nice change of pace from the ultra-local Stan & guy show. Herd tends to delve off into "guy stuff", but not beer and strip clubs like rock morning shows, but rather stuff aimed at more upscale, successful guys who are probably in the car between sales calls (me, for instance).

T&VP suffer greatly from the fact that Mike is never there because of his play-by-play travels, and Scott hasn't really reached his potential with a sidekick that varies from day to day. Honestly the most interesting partnership with Scott is when Stephen A. Smith is on the other side of the table. (They now run 2-4P).

Locally Paulsen and company now run 2-6PM.

Now if only they could get an FM signal for this.
 
I've had the opportunity to listen to Cowherd.

I think he tries to aim for a broader audience than Tony Kornheiser did and he is better than The Fabulous Sports Babe was.

That said- show me the sports talk show that DOESN'T try to aim for a broader audience than Tony Kornheiser and ISN'T better than The Fabulous Sports Babe was.

I find Cowherd's show to be a very good representative of what the ESPN cultural mindset is.

And sadly, that mindset tends to be exactly opposite of what the cultural mindset is everywhere but New England and possibly some parts of the West Coast, where Cowherd is from.
 
Does that mean:

1) ESPN always roots for the Celtics/Patriots/Red Sox/Bruins?

2) Supports West coast Teams?

3) Is part of the vast liberal conspiracy and supports Obama and the Stim?

4) Believes in the West Coast Offense?
 
I have always enjoyed The Herd. I always listened to him on ESPN 1340 out of Steubenville. Thos of you Robinson TWP west should be able to pick it up if you want to hear the first 2 hours.
 
MsMusicRadio said:
Does that mean:

1) ESPN always roots for the Celtics/Patriots/Red Sox/Bruins?

2) Supports West coast Teams?

3) Is part of the vast liberal conspiracy and supports Obama and the Stim?

4) Believes in the West Coast Offense?
Click to expand...

No, it means much of the culture is different in Bristol, CT than in Bristol, TN-VA.

Cowherd often talks NBA, for instance and puts down hockey.

ESPN has been known to push the NBA much harder now that they have the contract rather than they did before. That will go over very well on the west coast where places like Portland and Sacramento have teams, but no so well in Pittsburgh.

It means Cowherd has stated "people are smarter on the west coast." I'm sure the people at Carnegie-Mellon agree.

It means Cowherd deals so much in cultural stereotypes and defends them, and is so egocentric, that I am put off by it and instead choose other options (Stan and Guy, for instance- perhaps a political show or music) despite his show having a fast pace and his talent for asking direct questions.

And I also realize that I have probably just caused enough curiosity in his show that anyone who reads this will surely tune him in!
 
1) I graduated from CMU in 1967

2) The high infection rates of HIV/AIDS on the West Coast ,even with all the information available, shows that people can be real dumb out there still.

3) Ever watch the fans at a Raiders game?
 
Stan and Guy were cut back due to TV commitments. Guy is the defacto Sports Director at Channel 4 and needed the extra time to make sure they had what they needed for 5:00pm. Stan has a silghtly less busy schedule but didn't mind the extra hour to do something off-air for his show.

Cowherd makes me puke pure and simple. I know the station had no choice but to take him but he's pompus and when he starts touting the NBA as some superior product I want to rip the radio out of the dashboard.
 
I've been listening to Herd on satellite almost every day for the last couple of years. He's actually (and he has said this on the air) pretty much directed to talk NBA because it pulls 18-34 male numbers. Plus he's the AM drive show in LA, Phoenix and Portland, where the NBA is #1 by a mile.

I realize that this may not play well here in the Burgh, where hockey rules. But Pittsburgh is the 6th largest market that doesn't have an NBA team (if you don't count Puerto Rico)... Seattle had a team, San Diego is Laker country, Tampa, St. Louis and Baltimore (Washington Wizards). Tampa's close enough to Orlando but I can tell you from living there that it's the largest market that has NO interest in the league whatsoever. But the bottom line is that it plays in 22 of the top 25 markets, and that's what they care about.

And the alternative in that time slot is Jim Rome, who has the same West Coast and pro-NBA leanings (and gets NO ratings here).

I also think this shift, which happened on a number of ESPN affiliates, means the end of Tirico and Van Pelt sooner rather than later.

And in Herd's defense as well, he's really a football-driven show, 1250's picking him up out of season. He has Beano on weekly in the fall and it's a hoot.
 
It would be nice if the only other alternative to a syndicated show on 1250 wasn't another syndicated show (Jim Rome) as you stated, but they could have added local content instead.
 
the entire ESPN Family of Networks tends to put-down hockey, ever since they decided to dump the NHL during the lockout. Tirico was clearly their hand-selected future star, but on radio at least they have been struggling to save him almost from the get-go.
 
But the point is, this is Pittsburgh. We like hockey.

So why would we want to hear from a guy who does not?

Furthermore, as a sports network, why would it be profitable for them to put down a sport?

Women's basketball can't be making them much money. Do you ever hear women's basketball put down?

To the contrary! When Don Imus commented on the appearance of some women's basketball players in a crude way, ESPN led the charge to get him fired.

Hearing that hockey doesn't get any ratings nationally isn't anything new.

But we tend to like it here, and nobody wants to have their tastes bashed.
 
They put down hockey to validate their decision not to carry it. The NHL is quite happy with Versus, where it's not necessarily about ratings, but according to Gary Bettman, about being the most important partner the network has. they would never be in the top 5 of importance to ESPN.

It's not "profitable" to put it down, it's really not much different from music stations saying their competitors are boring.
 
Facts are facts. Hockey struggles. Pittsburgh is the exception not the rule in this case. He cares about New York, LA Portland, Etc. Pittsburgh is to him honestly just a side station. How do I know?
When he went on 980 in DC, they had him in for a live remote, likewise for New York City. Did they have him in Pittsburgh? No.
Long Live The Herd!
 
Pratte4Life said:
But the point is, this is Pittsburgh. We like hockey.

So why would we want to hear from a guy who does not?
Click to expand...

They're not going to choose not to carry a guy because he says something the audience will disagree with. To the contrary, the highest rated talk hosts in all genres evoke strong reactions (There are a few guys on 104.7 and 105.9 that illustrate this point rather well...).


Pratte4Life said:
Women's basketball can't be making them much money. Do you ever hear women's basketball put down?
Click to expand...

The WNBA is forced on them by the NBA. They know nobody watches it but they're stuck with it. The women's NCAA tournament probably pulls some female-targeted ad dollars during a time when they don't have the marquee event available to them, and their numbers would be bad anyway. They can only rerun the World Series of Poker so many times.
 
They have all of the local content they can afford. They'd love Stan & Guy in PM drive, but they can't make the TV schedules work. If you are an ESPN O&O you either do local or the network stuff. Rome was never an option from what I am hearing.

They'll discover soon enough that the show has just horrid numbers here but they'll cross that bridge when they get to it.
 
Cowherd really only cares about the top five markets and so does ESPN. That will change when they need to stem the bleeding from two major contracts that could really hurt them next year.
 
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