• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

stephen a. smith

KMGX said:
Actually Nate, I said the NBA is the 3rd most popular sport (number four if you count NASCAR), either way you look at it, don't take my word for it, look at the TV ratings... the 2009 NBA finals drew a 5.4 average share, the world series was nearly a 10 share and the Superbowl... well... we all know football in the U.S. is king. Stephan A. Smith is certainly allowed to discuss the NBA on his show--I don't think anyone is taking issue with that, it is the amount of time devoted to a single story that seems to be an issue. Moreover, ratings would indicate that the regular season in the NBA is a luke-warm interest with the vast majority of fans... therefore devoting such an extended amount of time to something that has limited interest is something that doesn't make a lot of sense... but in my post that wasn't my only issue with Stephan A. Smith... the overall presentation is lacking, the overwhelming amount of negative feedback generated to Program Directors across the country seems to speak for itself. Affiliates are not happy with what they have been given.

If you're a fan of the show, that is wonderful, however I know a few PD's in the biz that are absolutely disgusted at what this has done to their stations morning lineups. Here in Phoenix the show is aired from 4-7am in standard time and 3-6am during Daylight Saving time... so it's in a relatively irrelevant part of the day ratings wise... but why give people an excuse to tune elsewhere?

I would offer a sports show to anyone that wants it for $1 (since doing it for free would be illegal) if they're interested... anything to get that show off of your airwaves :).
Click to expand...

I've never heard Stephen A Smith's show. I like him as an NBA reporter, but never really got a chance to listen to his shows on ESPN very much. I will say this, if someone works with him (doubtful at FSR) I think he could be a player. Now, I don't think AM Drive is the right fit for him. If I were running FSR (and thankfully I'm not), I would have him paired with Hartman in the afternoon.

Also, for the sake of accuracy the NBA Finals received an 8.4 share in 2009.

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/06/16/finals.ratings.ap/index.html?rss=true

The record low for the NBA Finals was 6.2 between SA/CLEVE in 2007 (SA also has the other lowest NBA Finals in 2003). Generally speaking the NBA Finals are in the vicinity of double digit shares for the better part of 27 years when they started airing live.

SDC
 
Just noticed on the headline that the Fox station in Pittsburgh has dropped SAS show to go local. Does anyone where which major markets he's on in east coast morning drive?
 
radiogodzilla said:
Just noticed on the headline that the Fox station in Pittsburgh has dropped SAS show to go local. Does anyone where which major markets he's on in east coast morning drive?
Click to expand...


I'm in Richmond and they just announced Monday they're dumping him for the local afternoon guy, who's fairly new in town (he's moved up from Charlottesville about a year ago), and putting a noob on in the afternoon in current guy's place. A month and a half (change starts Feb 8) is all he lasted. And RIC has a fairly heavy African American population, plus a heavy national media bias as VaTech and UVA are pretty much the only major local sports. If SAS can't make it here, I can't imagine why they think he'd make it most other markets.

I have yet to see him getting picked up in NY or Philly. He was already a massive failure in NYC, and both markets have major local talent for their morning shows already. Understanding the point that FSR thought SAS had massive up-side, how on earth could they:
A) Not understand the down-side was not simply just as big, but bigger, or
B) Realize that the odds of their up-side happening were very short, but odds of the down-side coming to fruition were highly likely?

As soon as I heard the news, I immediately thought back to the Bruno/Van Earl fiasco. I couldn't remember Van Earl's name...thanks to whoever it was in this thread that brought it back up. Sisciliano has benefitted greatly from that whole situation, but I loved Bruno as well, and that move at the time also made no sense. I think it's pretty telling that FSR has him back on the air despite all the bridges he supposedly burned over there.

But it's not like Czabe was a failure or anything. In five years he increased their number of affiliates by 50%. I haven't heard a single media personality (other than maybe SAS) calling this a good decision. On occasion I run into something saying "hmm, could work." But for the most part it's largely negative. This shouldn't be shocking to anyone.

FSR, from what I understand, had a new program director (or that general position) who didn't like Czabe and pushed him out in favor of SAS. The claim was Czabe sounds too much like Mike & Mike, and half of me can't help but wonder if it's a race thing? I don't want to think that's it, and I know literally nothing about the new prog dir up to and including if the guy has deep purple skin and three eyeballs or not. But I'm literally racking my brain and trying to figure out what would prompt a person to say something like that, and I can't come up with anything other than "racial barrier" or "complete and utter moron." I'd like to hope a big business like Fox wouldn't hire the latter, but it's not like I haven't seen it before. "Complete and utter moron" is the other half of me thinking what would prompt someone to say something like that. I listened to Czabe BECAUSE he wasn't Mike & Mike...those guys grate my nerves endlessly.

For those interested, Czabe does First Team Express podcasts, which satisfies me for 10-12 minutes of my morning drive. I suppose now I can also listen to the new local show, and I'm definitely interested in hearing the afternoon. The problem for Richmond is, the local guys want to talk local sports as much as national sports, and listening to talk about UVA and VaTech is only slightly more interesting to me than pulling my eardrums out with tweezers. Our local guy's afternoon show ratings suck, so you can only imagine what SAS had to be pulling to yank it for our local...

- C -
 
psuasskicker said:
FSR, from what I understand, had a new program director (or that general position) who didn't like Czabe and pushed him out in favor of SAS. The claim was Czabe sounds too much like Mike & Mike, and half of me can't help but wonder if it's a race thing? I don't want to think that's it, and I know literally nothing about the new prog dir up to and including if the guy has deep purple skin and three eyeballs or not. But I'm literally racking my brain and trying to figure out what would prompt a person to say something like that, and I can't come up with anything other than "racial barrier" or "complete and utter moron." I'd like to hope a big business like Fox wouldn't hire the latter, but it's not like I haven't seen it before. "Complete and utter moron" is the other half of me thinking what would prompt someone to say something like that. I listened to Czabe BECAUSE he wasn't Mike & Mike...those guys grate my nerves endlessly.
Click to expand...

The old GM, Andrew Ashwood, passed away unexpectedly. After that they brought in Don Martin, the GM of KLAC Los Angeles. Not long after he altered the lineup and added his local KLAC shows, Petros & Money and Loose Cannons, but kept Chris Myers and replaced one of the Loose Cannons hosts with him. They also took out Ben Maller for a best-of FSR show and tossed out Sheamon & Washington for Dan Patrick, who was already syndicated by Premiere. Rather than fire Steve Czaban, they let him ride out the rest of his contract and simply didn't renew.

I heard the same comment from Czabe's blog. They thought he sounded too much like Mike and Mike. I can't even comprehend that. Except for "fat white guy talking about sports" I never compared the show to Mike and Mike.
 
I saw some pics of Don Martin. He looks like a used car salesman or a Blackjack Dealer in Vegas. My theory is Don Martin has a big ego and wants to reinvent the wheel. "He look at me, I created the new and improved wheel"
 
Leebo65 said:
I saw some pics of Don Martin. He looks like a used car salesman or a Blackjack Dealer in Vegas. My theory is Don Martin has a big ego and wants to reinvent the wheel. "He look at me, I created the new and improved wheel"
Click to expand...

that would be most people that are in the broadcast industry, i haven't worked with a person that doesn't have a big ego.
 
Today SAS Got on my nerves when he said Peyton Manning will never be in the league of Joe Montana and Tom Brady because he only has 1 Super bowl and a .500 record in the playoffs. If Tom Brady is so superior at winning Super bowls why are all 3 of New England's super bowl titles in the Brady Era won on Field Goals by Adam Viniatari. if Brady was so great why couldnt he get them into the end zone for the Game Winning score. And for the Record yes i am a colts fan but im stating the obvious Brady cant score a game winning touchdown in the biggest game of all and has to rely on a Kicker to win the game. at least the Colts only super bowl under the manning era wasnt won a FG
 
Hey Mike, did you call in to JT's show a couple of nights ago and attempt to deliver this take, only to have him pull his usual buffoonery and cut you off because he "heard you on another show?" What a clown JT is, can't wait until he slithers off into obscurity.
 
MikeStandardsFromIndiana said:
Today SAS Got on my nerves when he said Peyton Manning will never be in the league of Joe Montana and Tom Brady because he only has 1 Super bowl and a .500 record in the playoffs. If Tom Brady is so superior at winning Super bowls why are all 3 of New England's super bowl titles in the Brady Era won on Field Goals by Adam Viniatari. if Brady was so great why couldnt he get them into the end zone for the Game Winning score. And for the Record yes i am a colts fan but im stating the obvious Brady cant score a game winning touchdown in the biggest game of all and has to rely on a Kicker to win the game. at least the Colts only super bowl under the manning era wasnt won a FG
Click to expand...
Look like Peyton Manning is The Atlanta Brave of football.
 
facetheslayer said:
Hey Mike, did you call in to JT's show a couple of nights ago and attempt to deliver this take, only to have him pull his usual buffoonery and cut you off because he "heard you on another show?" What a clown JT is, can't wait until he slithers off into obscurity.
Click to expand...
Sounds like Sean Hannity. What a small minded loser.

Stephen A. is the stranger in a bar that becomes your Buddy, telling you how great he is. "Damn I'm Good, I've done this and I've done that" Then the dude promises you a BIG job takes your phone number and you never hear from him again. Basically a lot of hot air.
 
What nobody has mentioned is the fact that Czaban's ratings had supposedly gone down consistently over the past year-and-a-half (at least that's what Don Martin told his people during an FSR meeting). I like Czabe alot & Don says he did too, but in an economy that already stinks a network can't put off the inevitable if the show has become a ratings loser, or is more expensive than the ad $$ it's bringing in.

FSR figured bringing in a "name" might be a way to stimulate a ratings bump. No news on ratings yet, but Stephen A.Smith's show is generating alot of controversy (like the Howard Stern comparison - people either love or hate him passionately) & internet attention (tons of discussion boards like this one). Granted the show is still finding itself, but they'd be foolish not to give SAS a chance to develop before making any moves. Although, they could get rid of the sidekick Celesta. She doesn't know sports & adds nothing to the show, unless it's in a behind-the-scenes capacity; and if so, they should keep her there OFF the air.
 
And there it is... the first ever EVER post of someone saying they actually like the S.A.S show

Personally... I think it gets worse EVERY day
 
Touche' Stod... Touche'

I'm curious if anyone has ANY info on this...I had heard about all these markets on the east coast that are going to ADD S.A.S. Anything? Anyone? Anywhere?

All i have heard is that Pittsburgh was dropping him...
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom