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Thom Abraham hits The Fan

J

jetfli

The Fan is dumping "The Sports Guys" for Huntsville's Thom Abraham. After building somewhat of a following afternoons on 730 The Ump, Abraham is coming to afternoons at the Fan. Bob Bell is gone, but Jeff Diamond and Jonathan Shaeffer will "contribute" to the show.

Will this change do any more to get better ratings for the Fan? Well, I have a few questions...

  • His favorite teams are the Cleveland Browns, New York Yankees, Boston Bruins, Notre Dame, and Alabama. You can see local Nashville audiences tuning in for those discussions, right?
  • The show will still be carried live in Huntsville as it airs on the Fan. He'll have to keep up the Alabama talk to keep things interesting for Huntsville, right?
  • He'll continue to do a tailgate show before Crimson Tide games. So he'll mostly be keeping up with Vandy and UT football on a second-hand basis, right?
  • He's a transplanted Yankee. What, they couldn't steal away Mark Howard?

But hey, maybe it'll work out. It's not like the local audience doesn't take well to outsiders coming in here to do sports talk -- just ask that Blake guy or whoever that guy was that first did the 2:00 hour on the Zone. Let's give him a chance...
 
Jet, somewhere is the recesses of my feeble mind, I remember Huntsville as a point of contention between the Fulton/Biddle camp and Plaster. During their 99.7 days there was corporate talk of making Plaster a regional network talk show, including Huntsville. Fulton/Biddle wanted more confrontational talk or spice, with a larger network. Plaz seemed content with Nashville and immediate listening area only. As far as local personalities and local topics, Bob Bell and Bill King (in their WLAC days) let callers dictate topics. Tennessee recruiting dominated those calls. While there was that die-hard base of recruiting fans, other listeners and larger numbers went elsewhere. 106.7 may need a gimmick, new personality or a simple exorcism to rid the bad radio karma at that frequency.
 
Jet---are you saying the Fan has gone to Huntsville, AL to bring in improved talent over Bell and the gang?
Talk about stellar competitive strategy...close the door in the faces of the 7 listeners left. Maybe it's time for the Fan
to try something new like Hot AC, Male Geared Rock, R & B Oldies or Hip Hop...:) How does Crumulus
continue to raise the bar of radio brilliance to such levels. Give it up. When is the ESPN contract up?
Haven't they learned that any show from AL spells DOOM???
 
From all indication, Abraham seems to be a decent bloke, someone who I'm sure has a very good idea of what he's about to get into. In fact, he's likely already been told he can return to Huntsville if this doesn't work out. Sounds like another experiment without changing formats.

I'm thinking the ESPN deal goes into 2008. But of course, along the way there's been that pesky lawsuit thing, and now co-defendent ABC Radio is in the hands of Citadel which owns the Zone... gee, more twists than Lost. And speaking of conspiracies, courier, that network thing is known only by a very few of us on the outside of those studio walls...

Still, if you don't keep the focus local, why not just let ESPN play...
 
Tibbs2 said:
Jet---are you saying the Fan has gone to Huntsville, AL to bring in improved talent over Bell and the gang?
Talk about stellar competitive strategy...close the door in the faces of the 7 listeners left. Maybe it's time for the Fan
to try something new like Hot AC, Male Geared Rock, R & B Oldies or Hip Hop...:) How does Crumulus
continue to raise the bar of radio brilliance to such levels. Give it up. When is the ESPN contract up?
Haven't they learned that any show from AL spells DOOM???


Why not ship 1067 over to Davidson? They could simocast 880 or 1240. Makes more since to me than anything Cumulus would do. We're probably sure to get a spanish format on FM some day.
Click to expand...
 
Am I the only person who liked Bob Bell? Wow, that is a bummer that Bell has been let go.

I just can not listen to those 560 smart allecks take those little shots at UT football.
 
SwissVol, I prefer Bob Bell over the Afternoon Sports Zone. Bell will pose a question and then get out the way. Unlike Mark Howard, Bell does not interrupt his co-hosts and guests. Unlike Darren McFarland, Bell makes a short premise statement then asks the question. A typical McFarland questions goes something like,"Okay, caller or expert guest, let me ask you this. Will Kobe Bryant, and remember I think Kobe is a media prima donna, actually consider re-signing, and don't think for a moment Dr. Jerry Buss the Lakers' pwner isn't watching his checkbook, or maybe test the free agency market, remembering the draft just occured and the eastern conference is stronger?" McFarland has two or three false starts, incomplete ramblings, somehow finding his way to a question mark. Bell respects his co-hosts and is not afraid to disageree, unlike Plaster and his two yes men. Bell has journalistic integrity, unlike the cheerleaders at 104.5 who alternate between Predators telethon hosts and whiners, or the MetroCenter mouthpiece for the Titans. See last fall's scooped story when SI.com got news of the Volek trade and Plaz was caught asleep at the switch. Bell has been in Nashville a long time and that could play for or against him.
 
I think Bob Bell is "old school" broadcaster. I mean that totally as a compliment! I am somewhat weary of these in your face newbies that want to copy the styles of those National "Sporting news" type shows. Not that Mcfarland is that similar, but he is not as laid back, respectful as a Bob Bell. Now I have seen Bell lose his cool when confronted with a total a...., but notice how respectful Bell treats callers. Not talking down to them or not talking with that in your face garbage that you might sometimes hear the National hosts say on the National shows.

I also miss Boots Donely. I know Boots had that countryfied acent and it annoyed some of our Northen freinds, but the contributions Boots made, particularly on the football side of things was tremendous.

I think Plaster wants to have the local feel to sports programming. His adding Doug Mathews was an excellent choice for colloge football discussions.

I am *NOT* a fan of Don West on 560. The only thing I enjoy about 560 is the agent of troublemaking, "Small Mike" calls in and goes back and forth Bill King and them.

Nuff said lol
 
SwissVol, while I agree with you on the Bob Bell take and the local wannabee broadcasters' style, my opinion on Doug Matthews is a little different. While I think Matthews is knowledgeable, take note when he is forced into picking a team. He will go back and forth, then toss in a "either team could win this game" caveat. You are right about many of the 560 crew, although I enjoy Biddle and King when I would wander over to the AM side. Pogue tires to be confrontational and I really give him only a few seconds after his Yancey "Nancy" Thigpen blasts of long ago.
 
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