third sports station

[Philip_Airtime]

When the rest of the country is probably talking about March Madness, the Heat streak and would be talking about Hurley if he was coming to their hometown.

Well, I respectfully suggest you listen to Sportsradio 1270 The Fan if you're looking for talk about March Madness and the Heat's winning streak. I'm sure CBS Sports Radio is all over those two topics.

Here's the thing, BBB. Local sports talk is just that -- LOCAL! There's minimal interest in the NBA here in Buffalo. I'd be a fool to suggest that there's no interest in March Madness. There is. But it doesn't translate into local talk, especially since there are no local teams in the Big Dance. WGR gets a 5+ share in the Arbitron ratings by focusing on the Bills and Sabres. Period. If you polled the average WGR, you'd find out they would rather talk about the chances of the Sabres trading Vanek than touching on whether Florida Gulf Coast's Ciderella season will continue this weekend.

You might have a point about Bob Hurley. That was a significant sports story yesterday. Yet, fan interest in local college basketball pales in comparison to the two major sports teams. And keep in mind that Schopp and the Bulldog probably spent some time prepping with their producers to focus on the Vanek trade theme for yesterday's show. They were on the air during the time period the Hurley announcement was made. They had no opportunity to do any research. Can you then build a show around that? I don't know. I would argue no. It's not like a Bills or Sabres hiring or firing when the hosts already have significant knowledge to engage listeners. All they knew was that Hurley was a star of the Duke teams 20 years ago and was last an assistant at Rhode Island. Where do you go with that? And again, UB draws 2,500 to 3,000 fans a game, compared to 19,000, plus a huge TV audience, for the Sabres. So, I doubt the Hurley hiring would have generated the same number of calls.

You found the Vanek talk boring. That's fine. I have no problem with that. But I found it quite interesting for the 15 minutes I had it on the radio while driving yesterday. And that's fine. WGR should not program its topics on either of our interests but on what is of interest to the most listeners. And as the audience numbers show, listeners want to talk about the Bills and Sabres. And once the Sabres season ends -- presumably out of the playoffs -- WGR will likely lose half its audience from the Fall, as it does most years, until Bills training camp begins.

 

[bbb]

It was after three when I was in my car for probably two hours in and out. I probably would have turned out Rich Genzler if it was before three, but I really should give CBS Sports Radio a try. I'm kind of jaded with espn radio and figure all syndicated sports talk like that is going to be about the same.

I thought the same thing - they had this show planned. But, I thought jeez - you can't change up on the fly? I'm not really hankering that much for March Madness talk (the Heat thing I would be - so glad they lost tonight! I think you're wrong about people wanting to hear about that around here), but to take call after call on Vanek and not really have much to say about Hurley was ridiculous to me.

You said a few things that are part of why I didn't like the show. You talk about generating calls. Actually, I hate calls. I like when these guys have guests or do ten opinions, etc. (My favorite sports talk is no calls - Tony Kornheiser and Brad Riter when he was on WECK. I'd rather hear what Bob Ryan and Bob Gaughan, respectively, have to say about something than Joe in Cheektowaga).

And, you mentioned that enjoyed the 15 minutes. Maybe that's what this whole thing is programmed for. 15 minutes of drivetime for people. I can't explain any other way why you would just drone on the same topic every time I come back into the car. The aforementioned Mr. Tony has 8 segments, and they talk about pretty much 8 different things or if it's the same thing for 3 segments, it's three different experts.

And, like I said, this issue just is this bad for me this time of year every year. It's totally inane that they drone on about trade possibilities - and get every callers opinion - and NONE of them ever happen!! The biggest waste of airtime of the whole year.

 

[GeorgeKramer]

Is there special draft day coverage scheduled for today and tomorrow on WHLD 1270 AM? Obviously WGR is the place to turn to for the very latest, but is the new kid in town going to try and compete with specialty programming outside of the normal 3 hours of local content?

 

[Element9]

Every on air sports host and sports at 15 and 45 reader in Buffalo should be forced to listen to John Murphy do talk radio. The guy has to be the smoothest, most knowledgeable radio sports talk host in the market. He's so good, he makes guys who work with him sound better and it's not just because he has a great set of pipes. Murphy may be a better talk show host than play by play guy. Unlike most of the sports gasbags and wannabees who constantly try to prove they're the smartest guy in the room, Murphy just does it naturally. You can tell listeners respect him. He doesn't ask for *takes* or have gimmicks. Anybody who hears him for more than two minutes can tell he's been *doing this* for a while. A total pro.

 

[SirRoxalot]

John Murphy, Pete Weber, Van Miller, Stan Baron, Dick Rifenburg - WBEN had a long history of great sports talent. There were others. I remember that Pete Weber was grooming a youngster who was coming along nicely, but I'll be darned if I can remember his name. Entercom shifted sports over to WGR, changed the approach to attract a younger audience, we ended up with what we have today. John Murphy classes up the joint, and shows them how it's done in the big leagues. It would be nice if some of his colleagues listened and learned.

 

[bbb]

I love Murph, but he was too Pollyannish during the football season on his show. I don't know whether the Bills tell him to be, since they are paying him, or if he perceives that he has to be, but it seemed as though he was watching those game through rose colored glasses.

I wonder if the Bills would be OK with him being more balanced.