I've defended 104.5, but that's it (I defended Jack some on this board before the changeover), and I've never blasted or ridiculed anyone for defending another station, so I can only speak for myself. I defend 104.5 partly because I listen to them more than any other station, and I listen to them because I like them. I don't work in the industry at all, so there's really no loyalty factor other than having listened to George and Willy for more than 10 years. I do listen to the other sports stations to see what else is on, but between 6am and 7pm (when I do most of my radio listening), I generally enjoy listening to 104.5 more than anything else that's on (though on certain days I like what Colin Cowherd or Dan Patrick is doing more than what Jim Rome/Darren McFarland/10-11am variety hour is doing).
The other reason I defend them is because some of the critiques are either exxagerrated or blatantly wrong, like your comment that they never say anything negative about the Titans. I know this because I listen a pretty good bit. They do tend to be less negative than other stations, and certainly less knee-jerk (I listened to Pogue and Coleman for about 15 minutes last week, and after hearing fifteen minutes of "Someone's got to go!" I just got bored). Still, they are critical, and they are negative. Even before the 2005 season, Plaster was critical of Jeff Fisher because Fisher wouldn't say that the team was rebuilding in 2005, and George said they were going to be terrible (which they were). Heck, last week, I listened to Darren talk for almost his entire solo hour on Monday about how terrible the Titans are, how they aren't commpetitive in any games (which is exxagerrated; they had chances to win in the 4th quarter against the Dolphins and Jets), and how there's nothing positive about them. It made for pretty dull radio IMHO, but it was definitely negative. George has said on several occasions that the only positives have been Craig Hentrich and Rob Bironas. I've heard all of the afternoon guys and Mark Howard in the mornings say that Floyd Reese hasn't drafted well in recent years, and I've heard the same guys say that Jeff Fisher has lost the team. They've all speculated that if there isn't a huge turnaround, Reese and Fisher will be gone at the end of the season. They've all been critical of Norm Chow's offense.
Anyway, I don't want to turn this into sports analysis, but it's simply not true that the station doesn't ever say anything negative about the Titans. No, they haven't been actively calling for anyone to be fired. They've balanced the negative with the positive, which is a totally different thing. I don't know whether they would be more negative if Citadel wasn't broadcasting the Titans, but I doubt it; the afternoon guys were pretty much the same when they were on 99.7 in my opinion, but we may disagree on that. It doesn't matter to me; if someone would prefer a more negative tone, there's plenty of it out there on other sports stations and message boards. If it was all negative, I'd probably listen to something else, because I get tired of acrimony. But I'm no Kool-Aid drinker either; all is not right with the Titans, and if someone was saying that all the time, I wouldn't listen to them either.
I'll concede that Frank is sometimes overly optimistic about the Titans, but I can excuse that as a listener, because he played for that team, and so he looks at things from that perspective. But even he's not positive all the time; he's questioned the teams character and professionalism. Anyone who believes that they never say anything negative just isn't listening.
