A couple of quick points, first, to the fine folks at CityTv who lost their jobs today, best of luck, may you find work quickly! Especially Anne Mroczkowski, the 23 year vet. How she loses her job while the town bike keeps her job is beyond me.

This issue with violence in junior hockey- if you want to end it, start with parents and coaches of the littlest kids who play the game. You know the ones, they sign of their kids up for skating and hockey 5 days a week or more at the age of 5. If players at 17 have no respect for their opponents, start with where they learned the game. We as a society are totally nuts when it comes to teaching our kids hockey. Practices, skates, games, hockey hockey hockey. The pressure, the expectations is nuts.

I help coach my son’s team. He plays house league. HOUSE League. You know 1 day a week. The odd practice here or there. Our team is pretty relaxed, but you should hear and see the other kids/parents/coaches. You would think this was the NHL. the yelling, the screaming the PUSHING. These kids are 7!

If you think the hits you have seen in junior have been bad lately, seriously, go to your local rink and take in a pee-wee game. The cement head, John Brophy wanna be’s coaching these teams…..that is where it starts. Parents screaming from the stands at Pee-Wees! It’s nuts. In one of our games the other teams coach literally almost leaped off the bench when the referee (who may have been 11) missed an offside- I thought the coach was going to kill the poor kid!

To me it’s really quite simple.Throw the book at these kids who play like idiots. Every time someone does something like this, throw the damn book at him. Hockey is a privilege not a right. Make that the example. Teach kids to play hard but to play clean. Parents, the odds of your kids making to the show are slim and none, just like they were when you played. I heard a parent ask an opposing coach in my son’s league if they could work on their power play a couple of days ago- We don’t even have penalties in our league!

Now, that that is over…..

Curious, if you have been listening to the radio in this town lately. I know, I was away for a the holidays then I had the knee surgery, but wow- what happened???? Where has the quality gone? It’s really nasty out there.

Now, I will grant you the fact that there is nothing to talk about with respect to the Maple Leafs. They are out of the hunt this year. They have no draft picks this year. They claim to be unwilling to trade their only tradeable asset. What is there to talk about?

Still, man is it weak out there.

In listening to the morning show on the Fan the last couple of days, there wasn’t one segment that I thought was the least bit interesting let alone thought provoking. Do the boys have the post holiday blues? Are they mailing it in until their contracts are up???? WOW

The Bullpen is what it is. It doesn’t really change all that much. I will say this in Mike Hogan’s defence, no one can do what he is doing solo. It’s just not good radio. Toth isn’t the answer, but give him someone, he needs a foil of some sort.

The two lunch time shows are also both so tired. I like Darren Dreger. If he says a team is interested in a player, or something is happening in a room, I believe it. He is not a host. Having him on with Wilbur just isn’t good radio. He doesn’t play well to Wilbur, and he isn’t a good interviewer. More importantly, he really doesn’t share an opinion. Down the dial, it’s the same shtick every single day. The names change, but the ripping on Kipper for this, talking about someone’s basement hockey jersey’s and MacLean interrupting to talk about how much money he has…..

I am warming up a little bit to the gameplan. It’s a little bit forced and only because they can’t talk NBA/Raptor basketball all day. If this was a market and they could talk hoops for the entire show it would be good. In another market it would be good. You do your hockey show, your NBA show. These guys would be fine.

The shows that I think are suffering the most are the drive homes. Here’s a bombshell for you- I miss Mccown taking calls. I do. I thought it humanized him a bit. His screeners did a good job of blocking out most of the crap for him and to be honest he didn’t kiss anybodies butt and it was good to hear his opinion.

Today was painful. I know Jim Kelley is unwell, and I wish him the best of health. McCown talked to him today for over 30 minutes. Kelley just isn’t that interesting to talk to for that long. It was, in a word, awful. AWFUL. It wasn’t interesting, it wasn’t compelling and it wasn’t funny. It was more like let me talk to my buddy down the road to kill time cause I don’t want to speak to the fans.

To top it off- Brunt is away again this week and we are graced with John Shannon. Now, clearly the guys at Rogers (probably the same ones who fired Anne Mroczkowski and not the bike) messed up the memo. Shannon, I would think would make a fine replacement for Nelson Millman, NOT Jim Kelley! Have you seen the Sportsnet promo on Shannon? Touting him as an INSIDER- it’s INSULTING. Shannon is a television executive. He is a damn good one at that. He is not a sports radio co-host. Again, he’s not funny, he’s not interesting and he’s not informative. Unless the topic relates to, sports broadcasting, television rights or camera angles.

Up the dial, with the Leafs in their predicament, Wilbur has no ammo. Is it just me or is Bill Watters the real life Cosmo Kramer? He talks about all these guys with funny names or nicknames. Today for example, he is talking about a former colleague who passed away. I thought, here is Wilbur going to show that he is human. Instead he rambled on about some other guy Cheech ( I was praying he was going to then refer to Chong- at least that would have been funny). Bill Watters isn’t every guy. The every guy can’t relate to him. Yet he rambles on as if we do.

To finish it off you have the after hours on the Fan. Does anything make you hit the flip button faster than Lajoie, Faulds or Eric Thomas? Seriously, the fan finally has some younger guys that should be all over the air during these hours- hell do round-tables. On espn radio on Sundays they would have a bunch of guys talking about the games going on. Do that. Anything would be better than what I have been listening to lately- the Fan has gotten stale my friends.

Well, there’s my rant for the day- We sports fans in Toronto are getting screwed with our sports radio. We deserve better.

I feel better.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

So the numbers are in for the first month of the fall ratings on the radio. This is the new People Meter System which should deliver a more accurate account on who is listening to what.

Here are the highlights as I know them:

Men aged 25-54..Total Share Of Audience

John Oakley — 7.7
590 Morning Show – 6.3
CFRB – 5.7

Cumulative Audience

Fan 590: 158,000
640 Toronto: 111,000

So fair is fair and fair is unfair- there is only one sports show in town and the closest comparison is Oakley…

Mike Stafford — 7.4
The Bullpen — 2.9

Same story here as the Bullpen is the only sports show in town. I suspect this isn’t that surprising to the folks at the fan. It’s not the best time of day, the show appeals to a very small but dedicated group of people. No one else talks ARGO football/ CFL and then, well there is Toth….

Leafs Lunch — 6.3 – older demo (35-49) 4.0
Hockey Central/baseball show (only 12-1pm) — 4.3 older demo (35-49) 5.4

leafs lunch — 18-34 4.6
HC/BC ——-18-34 2.6

weekly cumulative: 25-54 fan 590 152,000 640 101,000
daily cumulative 18-34 fan 54,000 640 30,000

640 has fewer people listening longer which leads to larger share of the audience

I seem to recall this being reversed. To be fair, again, HC didn’t have a full month. The baseball show in a baseball dead town took on half the month. This is a good sign for Dreger though. I am most interested to see this number in the coming books.

Prime Time Sports 9.0
The Bill Watters Show 4.6

PTS cumulative 207,000-weekly 75,000 daily
BWS Cumulative 138,000 weekly 39,000 daily

Mccown has a big lead. BWS makes in roads in this space there is no question. However, Mccown is Mccown.

Interestingly enough, the Watters show surpassed Mccown with the younger demographic, 18-34 men: BWS 4.8, Mccown 3.9

In the older demographic men aged 35-54: Mccown 10.2, BWS 4.4

I don’t think that is totally surprising either.

TSM spoke with Nelson Millman, the boss over at the fan about the latest “book”

“It is fine, not hugely different than what we have seen. Our cumulative are up, honestly it will take 6 months for this all to shake out and we can identify some trends. No programming decisions will be based on personal people meters. No one should rip their rotator cuff off padding themselves on the back from one month under the new system.”

Over at 640, Program Director Gord Harris offered this “Leafs Lunch has been a market-leading program for some time, and we are thrilled that TSN’s Darren Dreger, as the program host, has extended our lead over other news/talk and sports/talk competitors in both the Male 25-54 and Male 18-34 demographics. In fact, AM640 is the number one AM radio station in the Toronto market in those demos during Leafs Lunch. We are confident that, as the exclusive radio partner with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the only radio reporter who travels with the team to every game, and our unprecedented line up of hockey “insiders” (including TSN’s Darren Dreger, Bob McKenzie, Ray Ferraro, Pierre McGuire, and CBC’s Scott Morrison),

We are also very happy with the strong growth we have seen for The Bill Watters Show, going from approximately 10% of our competitor’s share of listening in Male 25-54 demographic before we launched the show, to over 50%. That in just two years since the launch. Even more gratifying is the tremendous growth we have enjoyed in the younger male demographic (18-34) where we lead both our news/talk and sports/talk competitors. As the host of The Bill Watters Show, Greg Brady brings not only a wealth of sports knowledge and experience to listeners, but a youthful enthusiasm and humour – because sports is, after all – fun!”

Interesting times at both stations for sure. Let’s see how this looks next month.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

In addition to an off-ice personnel complete overhaul(perhaps only the PR folks saved) at the Toronto Maple Leafs, I am hearing from multiple folks in the industry that changes are coming to the Fan 590 (amongst other outlets). There is a lots of talk out there in general. How much is concrete? I have no clue. On previous occasions I have inquired of management about the truth of these stories and I have been told that they don’t comment on rumors. In this case however, there seems to be some consensus in what I am hearing on a couple of points:

Don Landry doesn’t appear to be sticking around for too much longer. Word is that if he leaves it will be his own doing in that it he isn’t loving the morning gig all that much anymore (anyone else think it shows?)

Hogan appears to be very safe. His work is steady and his overhead – reasonable. Not only that, there aren’t too many around who can do the Argo thing.

There is no consensus on Toth, in what I am hearing at all.

Some out there believe that cutting at the Fan could be deeper and include the night time guys, cash can be saved by going to either repeat programming or international programming (ESPN/FOX etc), same with weekends.

The most common thing I am hearing is that despite the beating Hockey Central at Noon is laying on Leafs Lunch, there is going to be a change here. It sounds like Doug (Richie Rich ) MacLean is going to be joining Kypreos and Millard for the show which may run from 12-2 in a the new world order. Almost everyone who contacted me about a change had this same scenario.

Following that show would be the Deacon, Doug Fairway from 2-4. Notice that MacLean and Armstrong’s show disappears??? Notice that Armstrong totally disappears except from Raptors broadcasts???????

Mccown obviously isn’t going anywhere but there seems to be a common belief that Jim Kelley won’t be staying at his favourite Marriot on Bloor much longer.

How or when this all shakes out is anyones guess. It’s one thing when one person emails or calls me about this type of thing. When it’s 2 or 3 I start to notice. 4-5 I am pretty sure that where there is smoke there is some fire… Let’s keep our eyes and ears on the folks at the fan for the next little while.

The one name that keeps getting mentioned as the new Marlie coach is…..drum roll…..Craig Hartsburg….. Don’t be overly surprised if he becomes the next coach of your Toronto Marlies….

I actually have a few of them, but thought I would share just a couple. Happy 20th Birthday to the Dome. I was there 20 years ago, on that pouring rainy night, when they opened the roof and tons of people got soaked. It was clearly a remarkable stadium then. Way ahead of its time. It’s only too bad that the whole retro ballpark era didn’t start say 5 years earlier.

My real thought of the day as I drove in to work listening to the Fan morning show was…

WHY

As in, Someone please tell me WHY Vic Rauter is guest hosting the Big Early with Don Landry? As between Landry and Stellick, Stellick is the sports guy, Landry the fan. When it’s Damien and Landry I get it. When it’s Kirke and Landry I get it. WHY does Vic Rauter get so much airtime. I don’t know the man. Hell, I don’t really know his work. Sorry, curling isn’t my thing. That isn’t to say I don’t think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, i had a blast the one time I curled…I just have no interest in it. The WHY stems from the fact that, in my opinion he doesn’t add anything to the show. He rambled for the part I heard this am about how satelites work- “you have to send something up and then the signal comes down”…..uh huh….good stuff. The only one thing I can see he ads is the ability for Landry to do more Vic Rauter voice over bits. Seriously, I am very open to someone telling me what I am missing, because I just don’t see it.

Happy 20th to the TED.

TSM

Tomorrow should be a very interesting day for those of us who enjoy sports radio here in Toronto. Tomorrow is the day the final ratings book comes out before the dog days of summer book. Very few people judge the summer book as very few people listen during the summer and most of the on air personalities, at least in this town take a lot of time off. The next book comes out in September and the one after that isn’t for awhile. The end result is that the numbers advertisers see tomorrow will be the ones that the channels are stuck with for some time. Also, the September book will be the first one under the new rating system as opposed to the current journal system which is clearly outdated.

Why is this HUGE? Well, with the current state of the economy, and downward ad spending, companies are going to be very careful with how they spend their precious ad dollars. A program director who may be loyal to certain hosts may have his or her hand forced if the ratings go a certain way. Similarly, a host who shows good numbers in this book may save him or herself their job for a few months. Any trends over the last books will also be looked at for future ad prices and rates. For a reminder of the last book, you can read my review here . Some highlights from the Star’s Chris Zelkovich:

“Morning show: 5.8 (Down from 6.0, a negligible drop)

Bullpen: 4.4 (Off 21 per cent, which may or may not say anything)

Director’s Chair: 5.4 (Up 4 per cent, but not really comparable to the `08 lineup)

Game Plan: 4.3 (Down 17 per cent from Chuck Swirsky’s audience as Armstrong and MacLean break in their show)

Evenings: 2.9 (A 39 per cent decrease, no doubt thanks to lame Raptors team)

Overall: 4.7 (An 8 per cent decrease, but still maintaining 6th place among adult males)

640 TORONTO

Evenings: 2.3 (Down 4 per cent as the Leafs continue to struggle) ”

Keep tuned for updates tomorrow.

TSM

Zelkovich’s article is here

Driving to work this am I caught the end of Stellick and Landry. Stellick’s “parting shot” was that he is sick of NHL overtimes going beyond the first OT and wants the league to move to 4 on 4 overtime periods after the first additional frame if there isn’t a winner. Mike Brophy has just posted the same thing on his blog over at Sportsnet. To each, guys who I respect, I say phooey. Yes the games can go on for what seems like ever, but who cares?? It’s sudden death. Don’t start messing with it.

No, I am not a historical apologist. I don’t long for the games of yesteryear. I do however think that OT hockey is fantastic and part of the battle is the fight to see which team can handle the duration, which is in better shape to keep going. Little TSM asked me as the game entered the 3rd OT how long they would let them play. The answer I gave was that they would play until they couldn’t play anymore. From a fan perspective, when do we ever get more then we paid for EVER? We don’t. OT and extra innings are the few times in life where the fans get a little bit more. In a baseball playoff game should the teams remove the center fielder or the 2nd baseman? What’s the hurry? What’s the rush???

“But overtime period after overtime period after overtime period? No way! I am quite certain this will offend many and quite frankly, I don’t care. Play one period of 5-on-5 overtime and if the score is still tied, play 4-on-4 until a winner is declared. It really isn’t a radical idea. I understand this would be a huge break from tradition, but that doesn’t mean it is wrong. The NHL went to 4-on-4 in overtime in 1999-2000 and we survived, right?”

For one, I am not offended Mike. It would take a hell of a lot more then that to offend me. I have no problem with 4-4 in the regular season. It was done to add some excitement, to open the game up and to prevent teams from playing for the tie. I love the shootout too. For the same reason, it’s exciting as hell. OT hockey in the playoffs is generally not teams trapping, just trying to hang on!

“For heaven’s sake, it’s just a freaking hockey game! The fate of the world is not depending on the outcome.”

That’s right Mike it is just a freaking hockey game. So why bother messing with it??!!

“NBC announced beforehand it would pull the plug on Saturday’s Pittsburgh-Washington game if it went beyond one period of overtime to broadcast the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby. You would have to be delusional not to understand why such a decision was made. The Kentucky Derby versus a Saturday afternoon NHL game. Hmm, wonder what gets the bigger ratings in the States?”

That Glen Healey, he is just so damn delusional!

“Before you go racing to the bottom of the page to fire off a nasty email reminding me baseball games can go deep into the night because of extra innings, may I remind you baseball is a little more widely accepted in the United States than hockey. When hockey matches baseball in popularity, get back to me on this overtime issue. The NHL has done a wonderful job in recent years making changes to improve the game. It’s not about catering to Americans; it’s about improving the product. After a painful period during which time the league established a standard for eliminating obstruction, the game is better. Not perfect…but better. Goalie equipment has been reduced in size and the game is better. The shootout was introduced in the regular season and the game is better. I love for the day when I can sit down to watch an NHL playoff game knowing I don’t have to have a week’s worth of food and supplies in the house just in case it goes into overtime. Your move, Gary.”

All good points. Let me ask this though. When do we stop screwing with things to appease an audience that will never be there?? No matter what the league does (with the exception of adding in bikini’s, taking helmets off and making fighting mandatory) will ever make the game “popular” in the USA. At least not popular enough to warrant the changes everyone constantly want to make. Ask the fans (and there are die hard fans in each US based market) if they want these changes made?? Isn’t it time to at least consider those who follow the game already as opposed to making changes to try and gain an audience that isn’t there. Do you think 1 person is more likely to watch a game simply because they know the end is pre-determined? Hockey is complicated enough to teach a non fan, now you are going to build in new rules for overtime in the playoffs?

I just love how media types use the phantom American audience as a basis to make changes to the game. The glowing puck worked wonders didn’t it??

TSM

Like Denis Lemieux in Slapshot, Gord Stellick and Don Landry on the Fan 590 this morning asked NHLPA guru Glen Healy, WHO OWN DA Coyotes? Unfortunately, Healey’s response wasn’t “Owwwwnsa, Owwwwnsa” as it would have been a hell of a lot more entertaining then the “no comment” that it took the better part of 25 minutes to get out of Healey. Do you remember hearing the stories about the concoction that Darcy Tucker used to drink before a game, 1/2 coffee, 1/2 diet coke to get the Sideshow Bob thing going? One has to wonder what it is that Healy ingests before getting his day going as well.

His tirade on NBC’s decision to show game one of the Caps vs. Pens series with the understanding that the game be moved over if it runs late because of “a horse race” was pathetic. IT’S THE KENTUCKY DERBY!! This isn’t just some horse race. He is upset they aren’t showing game 2. I get that. Versus isn’t the greatest network on the dial. I get that too. IT’s THE KENTUCKY DERBY! I love Healey’s line “and we get all this for free”. It’s pretty easy throwing darts from his lofty PA position, isn’t it.

After all the bs, the guys tried to nail him down on the Coyotes ownership and all he would really say was no comment. IT’s THE KENTUCKY DERBY! Just kidding. The reality is, Healy all but confirmed what the Glendale City Manager said 2 days ago when he claimed that the NHL is running the team. I don’t care what anyone affiliated with the team has to say. Healy told Landry and Stellick to call Bettman’s own radio show and ask him if the league likes paying the bills for a franchise. The best, of course is the new line du jour for Healy, “our job, the job of the PA is to put the best product on the ice. We have no say in where teams play or any of that.” So remember folks, the next time there is a horseshit game, it’s the PA’s fault.

Meanwhile, things in Arizona should get pretty interesting. Whether they like it or not. The cat is out of the bag. The value of the team (the one that made other potential owners run when they saw the books) just dropped BIG TIME. There is nothing Bettman Inc. can do about that now.

I am off to Detroit this afternoon. Will write more from Hockeytown. Anyone else notice how the Red Wings are the forgotten team in this years playoffs. All the mention of the Caps, Penguins, Blackhawks, Canucks, Bruins and oh yeah, that other team that seems to win the cup every year…

The first quarter book is up, here are the results:

Fan Mornings vs. 640- Not sports, but a comparison nonetheless

Men 25-54:
S1-2008 4.4 to 2.2 (fan was at 4.4, 640 at 2.2)
S1-2009 5.6 to 3.0 (fan at 5.6, 640 at 3.0)

So the fan morning show has grown from 1 year to the next. However:

Fan Morning Show from S4-2008 to S1-2009 goes 5.7 to 5.6
640 from S4-2008 to S1-2009 goes 2.6 to 3.0

Over the last quarter the fan share went from 5.7 to 5.6- not a huge drop, but a drop nonetheless.

HockeyCentral vs. Leafs Lunch

Men 25-54 S1-2008 3.8 to 4.8 (hockey central 3.8, LL 4.8)
S1-2009 6.1 to 3.3 (hockey central 6.1, ll 3.3)

Men 35-54 S1-2008 3.8 to 6.5 (hockey central 3.8, LL 6.5)
S1-2009 5.0 to 2.8 (hockey central 5.0, LL 2.8)

Leafs Lunch destroyed by Hockey Central… Leafs Lunch in S2-2008 was a 7.1 Millard and Kypreos are killing Dreger and Watters right now.

PTS vs. BWS: I am providing the last three years to try and offer some perspective on the headstart McCown had/has.

Men 25-54 S1-2007 9.9 to 1.9 (PTS 9.9, BWS 1.9)
S1-2008 9.0 to 3.2 (PTS 9.0, BWS 3.2)
S1-2009 7.3 to 3.5 (PTS 7.3, BWS 3.5)

Men 35-54 S1-2008 9.7 to 4.1 (PTS 9.7, BWS 4.1)
S1-2009 6.8 to 3.7 (PTS 6.8 BWS 3.7)

PTS in S4-2008 to S1-2009 was 7.8 to 7.3
BWS in S4-2008 to S1-2009 was 2.3 to 3.5

So, McCown is still ahead, in the one show that really counts, but his lead is shrinking, and Watters continues, as little TSM would say, slow and steady…..

I can’t imagine the folks at the fan are to elated with these results. I don’t the full set yet, but I am told that the Hogan/Toth numbers and the Armstrong/ MacLean numbers aren’t very good either.

680 remains the king of AM radio in Toronto

Call it Canada’s version of Mike and Mike, but there is a change coming to the Fan 590. With the passing of Ted Rogers, Fan head hauncho has a new boss and that boss wants to make an immediate impact. Sources are telling TSM this morning that the new Fan 590 morning show will be co-hosted by Steve Simmons and Damien Cox. The status of Don Landry and Gord Stellick have yet to be determined as of this writing. This will be a homecoming of sorts for both Simmons and Cox as both used to be hosts on the Fan590 way back in the day. They are not unfamiiliar to working together as they both appear on TSN’s copy of the ESPN show the Sports Reporters.

Expect an announcement from Millman soon.

How many of you read this gem already today:

“Cable is a great invention, but it’s ruined hockey. Maybe all sports for all I know, but hockey in particular. Televised hockey coverage consists of inane softball questions, rehearsed responses and panels of nattering heads. Why they even bother “interviewing” players is a mystery. Here’s a typical question:

“Given the Habs have you down by three goals, how important is it to come out with some extra jump in the third period in hopes of narrowing the gap?”

Raise your hands, all of you… That’s what I thought. Too bad too, because quite frankly it’s the best damn sports article I have read in these parts for some time! Kelly McParland’s editorial is so bang on. The article starts with Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau “exploding” after another moronic question about “the celebration”:

“You want to go there? It’s 10 friggin days since it happened,” Boudreau erupted. “We have talked to Tampa’s coaches. We have said our speech. The people that are bringing this up are you guys. Nobody cares about it anymore. But you guys want to bring it up because you want to see a riot, then you want to talk about retribution. It’s the dumbest thing in the world. You’ve got to have better stuff to talk about.”

No, Bruce, they don’t. Sad but true, they don’t. How typical is the hypothetical question posed by McParland in the above paragraph? It’s every frigging game! It is nice to know that the we Leaf fans aren’t the only ones forced to listen to the completely moronic intermission questions being asked by the former employee on rogers 10.

“The players have been conditioned to expect such pap, and trained to respond in kind. Any young prospect with promise undergoes media conditioning in which they’re coached on a handful of key methods for filling 20 seconds while saying nothing. Most barely make eye contact; few bother to break out of a monotone. It’s excruciatingly dull, but you can’t blame the players. The industry has brought this on itself by committing itself to hours of airtime every day, whether or not it has anything of interest to report. The time has to be filled, so pointless interviews, repetitious replays and mindless banter become crucial to filling gaps between the commercials.”

Exhibit A one Sidney Crosby. Is this what we really want from our players? I agree again with McParland, can’t someone come up with some original questions or content so that we don’t want to poke our eyes out with screw drivers every time the question is being answered?

“Unfortunately there are too few Ovechkins and too many cable channels. Most players understandly retreat deeper into their cliches and monotones. The gap between the athletes and the press pack grows wider. And hockey viewers suffer, along with the game. ”

McParland discusses the Alexander Ovechkin back and forth analysis and then ends with the above comment. It really is so sad. Competition and hard hitting coverage weren’t intended to drown us in the minutiae were they? I mean does the fact that we have TSN, Sportsnet, The Score and Leafs TV to name just a few of the television networks who cover every lace breaking incident. Are we to be bored out of our chairs by all this coverage? Is that what the intent was? Please tell me it wasn’t. How have we the fans gotten screwed by too much coverage? Where, someone please tell me, has the quality measure gone? Every ex-player is now “an insider”. It’s a joke.

Speaking of jokes, did anyone hear you know who on the fan this am? I guess in this instance it could be one of 2 people. First Don Landry started talking about Twitter. Now, I don’t know what they teach in journalism school, but in Law school, hell in grade school I was taught to never speak out on a subject I know nothing about. I don’t know, call it common sense. Anyways, Landry started to talk about twitter today. He did so after admitting that he had no clue what it was. He then felt compelled to say ” Well, can the twitter guys make any money from Twitter?” Before anyone could say anything in response (like um no, Don they haven’t figured out how to monetize this yet), Landry answered his own question, ” Of course they do, why else would you make it.” Parsley on the plate my friends. That is what Mr. Landry’s contribution to the morning show on the Fan are. Except, parsley, to some at least looks good.

After that bit, Mr. Toth took to the airwaves. Yes, Toth, despite not having anything worthwhile to ever say, and posting the world’s worst blog post ever about a fight with his wife was flying solo this am. Right out of the gate it was nothing but gems. First he uttered this line of sheer brilliance:

“People forget that superstars have that passion for the game”

HUH??? WTF! Toth was saying how Crosby and Gretzky were notorious for chirping at the officals early in their careers and how Gretzky hasn’t lost the intensity since he became a coach. Then he uttered that moronic comment. Does anyone think that a superstar in the NHL isn’t passionate? No really. Am I the only one who has NEVER forgotten that? But wait, it got better. First let me remind you that Mr. Sensitive should be about ready to head over to his favorite eatery to start preparing for his daily read of the sports pages after doing the show in the largest media market in the country and arguably the biggest hockey market in the world, for which he gave up many of his sportsnet tv responsibilities. Anyways, then he started to tell us how he was thinking of the layoffs at the CBC while watching Hockey Night in Canada (one of the only profitable shows our network has). Well it really bothered Toth that HNIC had 4 on air talents (Milbury, Stock, Hrudey, Maclean) to do highlights. The insinuation was that how dare they have 4 guys do the job of one while having to axe 800 jobs at our network. I repeat, HNIC is one of the only profitable assets the CBC has. This is not the place to start looking. Second and more importantly, these guys don’t (I can’t imagine) get paid per segment. They get paid on a nightly or game by game basis. But wait… Then, Toth started to take issue with the choice of PJ Stock as the one to be actually analyzing the highlights. Really, Toth was calling out the performance of a media member! What a farce. Here is a talentless moron calling out someone else? Are you kidding me? Then he had the nerve to start making fun of the city of Peterborough because Stock is from there????? Buddy, do yourself (and maybe your Mrs. too (hey you wrote about her not me)) take a LONG look in the mirror before you even think about being a media critic. You get paid (gasp) for commentating on sports. Once you start to do that, then perhaps you can try to expand your wings and look at your peers. Don’t get me wrong, I could really care less for or about PJ Stock.

PJ Stock, has more in common with Toth then perhaps Toth ever thought. You see they both represent exactly what McParland wrote about this morning. They are filler. Not even very good filler at that. They both take up time in the inordinately long day of programming that their bosses have to fill. Does anyone else remember the old Peter Puck cartoons they used to show? Or the skills showdown? How much better were both of those then what we get now? Hell, even the rumour segment on HNIC is unwatchable. When Milbury, Strachan are the insiders, it’s time to go outside.

Keep up the good work Kelly. There are many a sports sections that could use commentary like yours.

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