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950 ESPN radio lineup
- Thread starter ericNY
- Start date
B
Bob1370
Guest
They can't run 'GR's whole schedule, since they'll never get rights to Jim Rome as long as Clear Channel (Premiere Network's parent) is in the market and can clear it on its own WHTK.
I'm a little surprised, though, that they didn't also send Howard Simon's morning show (also regionally oriented) and Dennis Williams' nighttime show into the Rochester market, as well as Mike Schopp and Bulldog Parker's afternoon show.
I know Mike & Mike have some equity in the sports radio realm but at this stage it's basically a TV show (ESPN2) that's simulcast on radio, and like every TV show simulcast in audio, a few things get lost in the translation. Simon and Jeremy White DO do a radio show and it makes a difference. And Williams, being regional and covering teams the region cares about including the Bills, would probably do better at night than ESPN's network product from Connecticut, and would cost no more.
As for Schopp and the Bulldog, Schopp is familiar to longtime sports listeners in Rochester since he came home to the Buffalo market from WHTK, where he had a midday show for a few years in the late 90s in the timeslot John DiTullio handles now. So that's a logical show to send here. But I'm still a little surprised it's the only one. Did ESPN make nearly full carriage of its schedule a condition for flipping from 1280 to 950?
BTW, since I didn't catch either station this morning I don't know the answer to this...what is WHTK now using for a morning show?
I'm a little surprised, though, that they didn't also send Howard Simon's morning show (also regionally oriented) and Dennis Williams' nighttime show into the Rochester market, as well as Mike Schopp and Bulldog Parker's afternoon show.
I know Mike & Mike have some equity in the sports radio realm but at this stage it's basically a TV show (ESPN2) that's simulcast on radio, and like every TV show simulcast in audio, a few things get lost in the translation. Simon and Jeremy White DO do a radio show and it makes a difference. And Williams, being regional and covering teams the region cares about including the Bills, would probably do better at night than ESPN's network product from Connecticut, and would cost no more.
As for Schopp and the Bulldog, Schopp is familiar to longtime sports listeners in Rochester since he came home to the Buffalo market from WHTK, where he had a midday show for a few years in the late 90s in the timeslot John DiTullio handles now. So that's a logical show to send here. But I'm still a little surprised it's the only one. Did ESPN make nearly full carriage of its schedule a condition for flipping from 1280 to 950?
BTW, since I didn't catch either station this morning I don't know the answer to this...what is WHTK now using for a morning show?
Sorry, qman, but Eric was quite correct using “telecast”. As so many words like telephone, telegraph and teletype illustrate, the root meaning of “tele-” is “at a long distance”, so “telecasting” means “broadcasting at a long distance” – there’s no reason why it can’t apply to radio.
what really sucks is that they wot broadcast any of the mlb playoff games. so i guess there wont be any nba games broadcast on 950 either. new sportsradio in rochester, same lame shows and no live sports. god, i love crapchester ny. 
Bob1370 said:
The problem with incorporating more of WGR's programming, Bob, is that you'll get a steady diet of Bills and Sabres talk, and, as much as I am a fan of both teams, that can get boring after awhile. I would rather hear a variety of sports topics discussed. Also, I enjoy Mike & Mike in the Morning and I was happy for the move to 950 so I can now here the full four hours.
listener-in said:
Sorry, qman, but Eric was quite correct using “telecast”. As so many words like telephone, telegraph and teletype illustrate, the root meaning of “tele-” is “at a long distance”, so “telecasting” means “broadcasting at a long distance” – there’s no reason why it can’t apply to radio.
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Sorry. I stand corrected.
turmoil1000 said:what really sucks is that they wot broadcast any of the mlb playoff games. so i guess there wont be any nba games broadcast on 950 either. new sportsradio in rochester, same lame shows and no live sports. god, i love crapchester ny.
Ihope this is just a contractual issue with Clear Channel locally since they started the year carrying MLB games from ESPN and that 950 will pick up the slack in '09. I'm with you. I hope they pick up the NBA package and other play-by-play sports as well.
Well, you won't hear "variety" from Mensa Head and Stuttering Dog. They beat the same drum to the point of deafness. The suits at WGR are thanking the radio gods that hockey season has begun and the Sabres are back on, creating some interest in the station that might resurrecting WGR's slumping ratings.
We've seen what WGR does in Spring when the Sabres miss the playoffs: Nada. It's even worse in Summer when nothing's happening and the station's talk show hosts have to dig even deeper than they normally do to create some kind of artificial local controversy (kind of like the McCain camp creating the Obama-William Ayers flap) involving the Bills or Sabres.
A few weeks ago, I landed on WGR and heard their pre-game show ripping Trent Edwards, saying in effect, that the guy couldn't lead the team. Bwah? This seemed even more preposterous about eight hours later, after Edwards lead the Bills' last minute drive that lead to a field goal that won the game as time expired. WGR: long on bluster, short on credibility.
Normally, I wouldn't post about such an insignificant thing. But given this thread, I felt compelled to add to it. I find myself listening to WGR in the fall for Bills and Sabres discussion. Now I'm not a daily listener. But I usually find the analysis following Bills games to be interesting. And I do enjoy listening to Howard Simon on Football Mondays. When I tuned in during the 9:00 hour this morning, it started out well. Howard was making a well-reasoned argument against a ranking of the cities most likely to lose their sports franchises. Okay, there's some substance here. But then Jeremy goes off on a tangent while discussing Tony Romo's pinky injruy, asking Howard how much money he would take to have his pinky finger cut off. Apparently, Ronnie Lott did something of the sort years ago so he could keep playing? It doesn't matter. But after a minute of this, I said enough and hit the button to another station. I thought it was the goal of a radio station to KEEP people listening, not fleeing to another station. I know talk radio can be difficult, and it's so easy to go off on a tangent. But some discipline is needed here. It's Bills season. The Sabres are off to a two and 0 start. You have me for 10 to 15 minutes on my drive into work. Give me compelling content, guys!
Monday Night 10/13: MLB was on WHTK yesterday, both games (I am sure this is old news.) 950 was running Monday Night Countdown and then tossing everyone who wanted MNF coverage to "ESPN-HD" -- television, after which ESPN radio went to discussion of college football.
This wasn't particularly surprising since Westwood One covers MNF for radio, but what I found rather galling is that MNF didn't appear to be on radio at all in Rochester-- not on WHAM (I guess the Michael Savage/colon blow ads / get out of debt come-ons were a "must carry?"), not on 950 (because ESPN doesn't have it) and not on WHTK (because they had MLB).
All of this would have been OK if I could have DX'd a station, such as out of New York City...who has the Giants down there anyway?... but radio reception in the car last night was stunningly bad.
This wasn't particularly surprising since Westwood One covers MNF for radio, but what I found rather galling is that MNF didn't appear to be on radio at all in Rochester-- not on WHAM (I guess the Michael Savage/colon blow ads / get out of debt come-ons were a "must carry?"), not on 950 (because ESPN doesn't have it) and not on WHTK (because they had MLB).
All of this would have been OK if I could have DX'd a station, such as out of New York City...who has the Giants down there anyway?... but radio reception in the car last night was stunningly bad.
S
scooterodell
Guest
I actually listened to a MNF game last season for the first time... I had always watched before, but I'm not a cable customer, so the move the ESPN has made watching not an option for me. Too bad they aren't getting any carriage here. You would think there would be more demand for it since you can't pick it up on OTA TV.
OK, now you have me confused. Aren't the baseball playoffs on ESPN Radio and isn't 950 ESPN? So shouldn't the playoffs been on 950 and MNF on it's regular home on 1280? What gives?
So if Democracy Now is gone from 950AM, where will it end up? MetrooJustice was paying to rent the time, weren't they? I find it odd that no other AM in Rochester thinks their money isn't good enough. :
aaronread said:
This brings up the issue of "format purity" as it relates to news-talk radio stations. There was a time when I believed the format purity principle had merit. The principle states that in order to be successful, talk stations were best programmed as "all conservative" or "all progressive" and never inter-married, because talk radio listeners would not tolerate a liberal (e.g., Randi Rhodes) followed by a conservative (e.g., Rush Limbaugh) and would only be confused if not angered by such a mix.
Balderdash!
The reason talk radio has become such a laughable parody of itself is because it clings to the theory that political ideology trumps entertainment value. This, I believe, is what will lead talk radio to become (if it hasn't already) and old man's or old woman's format and an echo chamber featuring right wing nuts and left wing hissers bleating away, talking to those who are listening not so much to be informed and entertained, but to have their (political) beliefs and opinions re-inforced.
We'll really never know if the "format purity principle" will go the way of cart machines and turntables because radio is in such a sorry state these days that very few group owners are going to risk tampering with what seems, at least for now, to work. Moreover, groups like Entercom own the rights to conservative and progressive talkers in many markets and put these spinmeisters on separate stations. It's unlikely Entercom, Citadel, CC or Cox would put together a mix 'n match talk station any time soon. Their reluctance to do so is just one more example of why radio is predicatble and cookie cutter.
Critics of this post will cite music format purity rule #1: Talk radio formats have to be programmed like music radio formats, e.g., "you Gwen Steffani and Lynyrd Skynyrd cannot be played back to back on the same station."
In application to talk radio, that rationale is nonsense, much like comparing apples to oranges. It overlooks, if not blindly ignores the distinct differences between talk radio and music radio. It also goes to further the divisive nature of talk radio, which seems only to further polarizing the citizens of this country.
Radknowski said:
You are certainly singing a song I've been belting out down here in Ohio for a long time - "it's the entertainment, stupid". Right wing, left wing, chicken wing, it makes no difference. And speaking of conservative talk, one need only look at Rush Limbaugh's rise to see why.
You may or may not be a fan of Rush. Whether you agree with his politics or not, that's not the point. The point is that he brought entertainment into talk radio in 1984, nationally in 1988, and got people other than diehard conservatives to listen to him.
This is a lesson still not learned by most of what's left of liberal talk radio, save for folks like Western New York-area native Stephanie Miller.
Even as the Air America folks added people with actual talk radio experience (Lionel, Ron Kuby), it was too late. The AAR star faded so badly the network is now on a couple of dozen or so stations, many of them hanging on to survive.
That brings us to "Democracy Now". It's not format purity keeping that show off the air in Rochester or anywhere else. It's because it is an activist, public radio show that belongs really not even on most NPR outlets. It really only fits on Pacifica stations, and does well there.
If it returns to Rochester, it'll be because some brokered station likes the money, and isn't worried about format purity.
Remember Doug "Greaseman" Tracht's "return to radio" after his latest incident of a bad racial slur? It was by buying time on a small, Vietnamese-formatted AM station (WZHF/1390) in Washington, DC. It's likely Doug couldn't even pronounce the name of the show that followed him each morning, let alone have a need to promote it
Now, I don't think Rochester has any stations running brokered Vietnamese programming, but you get the idea.
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