It started as an innocent call to the Fan 590. A guy called in complaining about the coverage the Toronto Raptors get on the Fan590. The caller alleged that everything the Toronto Maple Leafs do is over-hyped and nothing the Toronto Raptors do is every hyped. His point was that the Leafs play of late has the media in a buzz, while no one talks about the Raptors except in a negative tone.

Taking the call was Eric Smith and Jack Armstrong. Part of Smith’s response was that, on a no name basis, there are those in the Toronto Sports Media who aren’t as big of fans of the Toronto teams as others.

Smith, in case you don’t know, is an active participant on Twitter (you can follow him at @eric_smith). So I, being the curious type, sent him a tweet asking him to, on a no name basis to expand upon his comment. Now, I have said this before but the one area, in my opinion anyway where Twitter is really useful is making guys like Eric Smith, (you can add in many sports media personalities here, especially on the local beat) accessible to us fans. Now I guess, prior to Twitter, I could have emailed Smith if I had his email address and maybe he would get it, and maybe he would have read it. Personal experience has shown that as long as you aren’t a total dink and are the least bit insightful most of the sports personalities in this town will indeed respond to you. In this case, what ensued was pretty cool, all things considering. Smith explained that in his opinion there are members of the local media (not on the Raptors beat) who don’t want other sports (hockey being the exception) like basketball and baseball to succeed here. He and I then went back and forth several times to the point where he invited his Raptors broadcast partner Paul Jones (@paul_jones) to the conversation.

The three of us discussed the issues for several tweets and the take away I got was that there is a genuine belief by those in the media, that other non-Raptors media types don’t respect basketball or the Raptors the same way that they do the Maple Leafs and hockey. Jones said that things are better today as opposed to the past, but still one gets the sense there is some bad blood in the media towards the dinos and those who cover them.

It got me to thinking, and who am I to suggest that these guys are wrong, they are living it, they know who their breathern are and who may have the hate out for what they do better than I. Are those in the media really anti-bball/Raptor or is there more at play? Are the Raptors getting a bad rap from the local media?

So here is what I think, and I am curious to know if I am on or off base.

The Raptors have been around since 1995. They have made the playoffs 5 times over those 15 years. They have advanced past the first round one time.

I would like to think that winning solves all problems. Not to point any fingers, but had this team been more successful then I think more people would be interested in covering them. This has been a team that has been all about the promise. There has been lots of hype, lots of enthusiasm but unfortunately for various reasons little in terms of wins.

Now, the Raptors do have an awesome fan base. The games are well attended and the Raptors blogs are some of the best around. There may not be as many Raptors fans as Maple Leaf fans, but man are the rabid. We have to remember that Jones and Smith were talking media not fans.

The second thing I have said many times about the MSM in this town is that they don’t talk basketball or Raptors because they don’t know it. How hard is it for us canucks to rip on Toskala for letting in a soft goal? Unless your real fan of the game it’s hard to make legitimate comments on what is or isn’t going on. Many who cover sports in this town don’t have that background. For them to start talking x’s and o’s in basketball when they don’t know what they are talking about would be, in a word bad.

Personally, what I think has happened is pretty interesting. When Colangelo arrived it was the first time a real NBA executive joined the team. It was like the Raptors became legitimate. I know Isiah was here early, but he had never done what he was doing in Toronto before. I know we had Lenny Wilkens, but a coach is different than a GM. Colangelo was viewed as the real deal. He has been given every benefit of the doubt since he arrived. Those who may have criticized him publicly or questioned his moves have been very quiet since he arrived.

Colangelo, arrived and was instantly successful. This early success added to the aura of BC. He almost became too successful too early. Expectations were too high. Imagine if after Brian Burke arrived last year the Leafs miraculously made the playoffs and won a round. Colangelo’s challenges since have, for the most part gone unmentioned in this town. The truth is, he has rebuilt this team, hired a coach, with little real result yet. His team this year has yet to find common middle ground. They are either at the top of their game or the absolute bottom. They are just never in the middle . That’s a tough nut to swallow for fans let alone the media. His team also seems to lack an identity. While Chris Bosh is the “the franchise” it isn’t like you see his face all over the city. This isn’t a knock on Bosh, more a reflection of this team… I think if they were in first or second place, going on 5-6 game winning streaks things would be different. If the team had more success, those in the media wouldn’t be able to ignore the success. The same way the Toronto Blue jays were the toast of the town jsut before and during their winning years.

So do the Raptors get a bad Rap? I don’t think so. I think that despite their 15 year history they are still a new team in search of their identity in the marketplace. If MSMers are balking at them, it’s because they don’t know the game, or they haven’t been forced to cover them as a result of winning. If the complaint is lack of coverage, isn’t that better than negative coverage? Yes, as Paul Jones said, silence is very telling, however, it is better than constant bashing or negativity. If the MSMers are doing that behind close doors, we wouldn’t know about it. I haven’t seen public evidence of what these guys speak.

To the fan who called in, I couldn’t disagree more. The Leafs, for as long as I can remember have been the whipping boy of the local media. The main reason I started TSM was that I felt and still do feel that man in the media are too negative about our teams all the time. The Leafs have been so bad for so long that any positives are magnified. The fact that they too have hired a proper GM for the first time in years is something to get excited about. When they couldn’t win a game early this year, I wouldn’t say the press was too positive (nor should they have been). The fact that the Leafs have fought back is remarkable. No one publicly predicted it. So is credit deserved for good play? Of course. The same way criticism was due during the first 20 games of the season.

Get the Raptors on a real winning streak, get them deep into the playoffs. Then let’s see what happens. Until then, at least publicly I think the jury is out.

Happy Saturday

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Here’s your bikini of the day from bikinibeat.org:

On Fan 590 Tonight

…Co-host is John Shanon

5:05 Rob Zamuner, NHLPA live from Bosnia
5:40 Christina Lews, Wall Street Journal
6:05 Don Banks, SI.COM
6:30 Eddie Olczyk, NBC & Versus
6:45 Eric Smith & Paul Jones IN STUDIO

On 640 with Brady and Watters thanks to Mike S.:

Bill Hayes fills in as co-host for Greg Brady.

- Dave Naylor of the Globe & Mail on football
- Sean Baligian, fantasy football expert
- Hockey insider Pierre McGuire at 6:10

Not sure how many people caught it, but public enemy number one of Raptors nation was on with the Raptors radio crew (in my mind the worst play by play duo in Toronto sports) tonight. I didn’t catch the interview but several of you did and here is what you told me took place and of course the TSM take on each point:

* The 1st SEVEN questions Smith and Jones asked Chris about were about his iphone app and deal with Warner Music Canada. Whether or not this is topical, there certainly were bigger issues of the day don’t you think?

* “Jonesy” references EF Hutton…Bosh had no idea who that was and had to ask!!!

* “E” complains that he(“E”) follows Bosh on Twitter but Bosh doesn’t follow “E” back. Now that makes for great radio no??? Isn’t there a rule about media types not begging for this type of shit???

* “Jonesy”finally gets around to talking about the issue dujour, and neither he nor Bosh ever explain it. A couple of people emailed me that they tuned in after this point and had no clue what the hell these guys were talking about!!

* Bosh makes the bold comment “I’m used to reading wrong things written about me. in the press all the time.” Follow up question to that : ” Insert Crickets Here”….Come on guys, when you get served up a gem like that, you have to ask the question, what exactly are you talking about Chris??????? Even the best of shills know that!!

* Chris Bosh says there’s “good” odds he will stay in Toronto. Does anyone there want to guess what Bosh means by good odds? I mean are we 70-30, 60- 40, 50-50??? Oh, wait, there was no follow up question to that statement either!

* Interview ends with more lobs to Bosh about his iphone app. Journalism at it’s absolute toughest.

* “Jonesy” ends the segment with this gem, ” I (“Jonsey”) take a lot of heat for saying that Bosh could walk down Yonge street with any other Toronto athlete and Bosh would be more recognizable than the other athlete.” I am sorry, but raise your hand if you dispute this? Suffice it to say that Bosh has a rather “unique” look to him no???? Seriously…I need to know who gives “Jonesy” heat for this? Can you imagine Roy Halladay, Vernon Wells and Luke Schenn walking down Yonge street with Bosh and Bosh is the one who gets noticed….SHOCKER!!!!!

Where is Spider Jones when we need him??

bosh-es-20090604

Listen to the Chat here

A happy Sunday evening to all. I had a great time on the radio today. Murray and his crew were terrific. Little TSM and I enjoyed ourselves and I would love to do it again. Murray has promised me a copy of the segment and I will put it up as soon as I get it. For those of you who were kind enough to both listen and email me privately thanks for kind words, they are greatly appreciated.

With that review of my foray into the medium, lets switch gears and start to focus on the first media power rankings. Here is a review of the folks on the two radio stations that cover sports in the city:

On the Fan: Rick Ralph, Don Landry, Gord Stellick, Daren Millard, Nick Kypreos,Mike Brophy,Doug Farraway,Jack Armstrong, Doug MacLean, Bob McCown, Stephen Brunt, Jim Kelly, Roger Lajoie, Norm Rumack and throw in Eric Smith, Paul Jones, Paul Johnson, Sherman Hamilton and Jack Armstrong, Howard Berger, Rob Faulds, James Deacon and a myriad of regular guests(Dan Shulman, Rob Becker, Peter King, Brian Cooper, Jeff Blair, Richard Griffin, Bob Elliot, Michael Grange, Mary Ormsby, Keith Law, Iain Page, Gord Kirke, John Wells, David Shoalts, Glen Healy, Scotty Bowman, Jay Triano, Chris Schultz, Damien Cox, Elliott Friedman, Nick Kypreos, Pierre Mcguire, Adrion Smith, Eric Smith
On 640: Bill Watters, Darren Dreger, Greg Brady, Jonas Siegel, Andy Frost and their guests(Bob the Bear Cowan, Darren Dreger, Scott Morrison, BoB McKenzie, Christine Simpson,Brian Duff, Rob Higgins, Jim Ralph, Joe Bowen, Sean Baligian,
The first caveat is obvious, one is a 24 hour sports station, the other, well, it’s a talk radio station that does several hours of sports a day. The Fan is the measuring stick in this town. They have been here the longest, built an established brand and continue to create and host excellent programming. Are they perfect? Of course not. One of their biggest problems, in my opinion anyway, is that there simply is not that much to talk about 24/7. Having said that they do a damn good job filling the hours. I am not an Argo’s fan nor do i follow soccer or high school sports. I don’t bet on football either so there are times that I just have no real reason to listen. To either stations when those topics are being discussed.
I am not listening to the fan early enough to listen to Rick Ralph start the day, so I can’t comment on his show. I think he does a great job on his news updates though. Stellick and Landry, in my opinion are a big tease. They own the morning drive when it comes to sports. They are on a sports station but I feel that they do more sizzle and less steak. They don’t talk hardcore sports as much as they do hi-jinx. The odd joke or “bit” is fine. In my opinion it is just over kill. The John Gibbons, Ken Dryden, Vito from Woodbridge and the mind reader schtick are just lame now – again in my opinion. Their insiders can be great. When they talk sports they are terrific. The segments they used to do with Sam Mitchell were the best on the station. I could do without Kathryn Humphreys to be honest.

You listen to Mike Hogan and Mike Tooth, you can’t help but think these are two good guys. They love all things Canadian, junior and college athletics and of course the CFL. Unfortunately, and maybe it’s just for me, but, very little of that makes for interesting radio. Like I said, they sound like nice guys talking sports. They have some decent guests who seem to know a lot about the CFL and Canadian college football. They do get some good NFL guests as well, however I think I am the only sports fan in this city who is not enamored with Chris Schultz. From my perspective, he is way too technical and relies too much on that from his playing days. He too, seems like a nice enough guy, just not compelling enough to listen to. I find their hockey and baseball coverage lacking. They do spend at least an hour each and every week during the season on the Raptors and that is great to listen to. As I have said though, by virtue of not being an Argo/CFL guy there are at least 2 days a week where I will instantly change the channel because that is all they talk about.

The first daily battle starts at the noon hour. This is a war that is starting to get more interesting as the days go by. Every time Kypreos and Watters are on the tv together they look like they are going to kill each other. Watters the ex-agent, assistant GM, high school coach and color commentator vs. Kypreos the ex touch guy player turned analyst/insider. You can’t help but believe that they truly want to cream the other every chance they get and they go head to head on most days at the noon hour. Mallard and Brophy are there with Kypreos and a ton of quality guests. The one nice thing about this show is that it pretty unstructured. In this case it sounds like a couple of guys talking about hockey the same way we all do with our own friends. Brophy lost of respect from me this past week when he went toe to toe with Pat Quinn, tried to embarrass him and was wrong. Up the dial, you throw in Dreger and another great group of guests and you have a show that is quite good too. Dreger seems to the new(er) boy wonder on the scene. He breaks a ton of stories and where he used to have to sit in McKenzie’s shadow he has his own track record now and people look to see what he is going to have to say when a story seems to be breaking, if he wasn’t the one to break it. Kypreos is a little too pro-player and Wilbur too ignorant (I prefer bigoted but I am flexible Mike S.) and his anti-MLSE stance has just about run its course. Truth is, I try to listen to who and what each are going to be talking about on a given day and listen based on that information. If you don’t care about listening live then you can do what I tend to do and pick after the fact by listening in on the web late at night.
Doug Fairway is the Fan’s DH. I have no clue if this true, but I get the feeling that he is the go to guy at the fan. He does an admirable job filling in WHENEVER. He ihas some good opinions and I love listening to his sarcasm when he does the deadline show or other big event shows. I have never heard his 1pm show so I can’t comment on it.
The one show I really like on the Fan is Maclean who just needs to stop talking about his own wealth for a segment and Armstrong who seems to know his basketball (hell if I know) and makes a great effort to talk shop in all the other sports, including hockey. These guys work really well together, they get good guests and both bring unique perspectives to the events as they unfold each and every afternoon.
The big boys come out during the drive home show. As I wrote this past week, when McCown and Wilbur are ON their respective games, both are excellent. McCown with Burke this week was the best interview I have heard with Burke since he took the job. When Wilbur actually interviewed Collangelo and didn’t try to use jokes and innuendo to prove to his listeners how close he is to the guests as he usually does he proved to be a great interviewer. It was the first time I had heard that in him. He should go that route more often. The shows are very different if you think about it though. McCown is the host on Prime Time Sports. Kelly or Brunt (or anyone else sitting in as co-host) fill in with opinion while McCown leads the discussions and directs the show. On 640, it is almost as if Brady is driving the ship. That is not to suggest there is no deference on the air, it is clear it is Wilbur’s show (hell, look at the name). Brady is driving the show though; Brady leads the show through, calls, breaks, news traffic etc. He is the one who introduces guests. Neither format is right, but they are different. Kelly is McCown’s Ed McMahon, Brunt much less so. There is no real sense of that on 640. The guys disagree quite often and there seems to be a mutual amount of respect for the opinion of the other. To me again, it comes down to the guests. In this category McCown wins for diversity. Whom is best is based on opinion of course. Put Mckenzie on with McCown up against the combo of Dreger and Morrission on 640 and you have a pretty difficult decision. 2 nights a week McCown does round tables. I think the format used to be great. I am not overly fond of a lot of the folks who have been around the table recently. Nothing personal, but Rob Faulds, and Mary Ormsby just don’t interest me that much, and a result I seem to be flipping more often away from them as I did before. The same can be said for having Morrison and Dreger on every night. I know, this is a leaf town, and we all love to talk LEAFS, LEAFS, LEAFS…but I would like to have a little variety. As with the lunch hour, my listening depends greatly on who is going to be on the show (both hosting and guesting!) I look every night to see who was on the show I didn’t listen to and try to catch parts of what they put on the web.

There is no better interviewer in the game, in this city then Bob McCown. We all know if big news breaks in the world of sports McCown will have a take on it, and someone involved at a high level will be on PTS to talk about it. It’s hard to compete with that. When it is hockey related, especially the Leafs 640 is the place to go. Wilbur and Brady do a great job breaking down all things Maple Leafs. With Burke in town they are providing much more balanced opinions on the Leafs and despite the fact they are on each and every night, Morrison and Dreger have the league covered. I will take Jonas’s green-ness over Howie’s editorials every day. If Berger could just report on the facts he would be a good beat guy. Jonas needs to spend more time in front of the mirror and work on his own material.

After 7pm, I don’t listen that much unless I am in the car. I listen to pre, post and live games. If I have twitter on, the Fan does a phenomenal job keeping folks up to date as to what is coming up on the air. If any of the shows have interesting topics/guests I tune in. Norm Rumack (I know, I sound like a broken record)does get some interesting people on who just don’t get called upon during the normal business day. He is much easier to listen to know that he adopted a team other then the Leafs and his rah rah Syracuse is pretty funny. I will say this, I will take the personality of Andy Frost vs. Mike Wilner any day. Both guys have the worst jobs in sports media, taking post game calls. It has become more apparent that this has taken a toll on Wilner as he gets more crotchety each and every year. Frost seems to have the right demeanor for the gig and man no better a voice for radio exists in this town.
So, there you have it. A fairly comprehensive run down on sports radio here in Toronto. I am going to try to provide the weekly media power rankings. Everyone is fair game. Radio, TV, print, play-by play etc. So many of you send me clips, links and articles, I will need more of the same so keep em coming.