Toronto Sports Media Sports Radio Lineups

I was able to listen to 20 minutes or so of Zaun and maybe 20 more of the roundtable and it just became more of Cox being a dick and I turned it off. I try to be a fan of the Fan, but it seems to get harder some days…

The fact that you made it through 20 mins of Zaun should be enough to get you a medal. I have pretty much given up on the FAN now. I think if they moved Mike Richards to the afternoon it would have a chance of doing well against PTS. I am just tired of the people and Bob’s angry star schtick…

…I don’t get this whole idea of the roundtable that all of them get the floor to spin some yarn. Last time I checked, this was sports radio, not “old boys sitting around the gabbing” radio. We can blame the new PD for this. I think Hayes could take him on better than Richards, but that’s personal taste I guess.

It used to be that McCown, if he had two segments with someone, he’d “gab” the first segment. Seems like its getting worse now.

I read that the new PD wants more of a “guy talk” thing, hence why they brought Krystal over. I also remember when 640 was “The Hogg, Radio for Men” in the 1990’s. That tanked after a year or so, and died in a much less crowded and complex media landscape…not sure if this PD was part of that station.

When i have time, its Mike and Mike on ESPN, Brian Hayes, Dan Patrick or Rome, and then PTS, with All Night on ESPN for when I’m up late. I think Cybulski has merit, but Hogan should be in that spot, that would very interesting…

I stopped listening to PTS a while ago. Glad I am not missing anything.

A lot of people don’t like Cox, but one thing that I can say in his favour is that he knows something about tennis, which is one of my favourite sports. Over the past few years I am amazed that so few of the commentators know anything about the sport beyond McEnroe, Borg, and Sampras/Agassi. I even remember a round-table on PTS a few years back when they tried to remember what surface the French Open was played on. Of course, such ignorance is excusable from laymen, but this was from people whose profession it is to know these things. Anyway, thank heavens that both Cox and Brady enjoy tennis – and now that Rogers is going all-out into the tennis business, I would be much happier if they talked a little bit more about that than about say, the CFL, which belongs to TSN anyway.

I flipped on the TV for pts..
I see cox and Mr. Magoo..
Sorry I want to be entertained and learn stuff I might find interesting!
IS THAT ASKING TOO MUCH?????????????
didn’t make it 2 minutes BYE BYE…

I am agreement with most of you regarding the issues/problems we have with PTS. What I find interesting however, is that with the exception of a few people we are switching from PTS to Cybulski, but rather just clicking it off. I think the only way PTS starts to change is when the ratings show that the Cybulski Variety Show (laughed when I read Mike in Boston call it that) is taking listeners away from Rogers.

Edit: Meant to say “with the exception of a few people we are not switching from PTS to Cybulski”

Gerry, as usual, point well made…I and many others I speak to, here and in other settings, are also not switching over so much as switching OFF entirely, to either 550 or some other station.

I won’t make the complete jump over until they drop the MMA stuff and grow up a bit. I am 25 years past university and lived/heard this movie already, while Bob seems like an old fuddy duddy at times, these guys act too sophmoric to be taken seriously.

The next rating book is due in a few weeks, and I really hope we can get a full look at it. TSN will have had 3 full months in operation and it will be interesting to see if the comments we read here are indicitive of any real changes in the audiences.

I have seen a gradual deterioration in PTS for the past 3 years or so…McCown seems to care less and less, endless old-man boring chat, sycophantic co-hosts and now the inclusion of Damien Cox who comes across as lacking any broad sports knowledge and is annoying/arrogant to boot. If TSN were to come up with a credible alternative PTS could see significant erosion in it’s fan base.

I am telling you all, get yourselves a Sirius and tune into Tim & Sid (or check out podcasts). I never catch the first hour of PTS anymore. T&S are covering all sports and they are hilarious. I listen on my way home from work and usually relisten to podcast later because there is so much going on I usually miss something ( mostly because I am laughing to hard)!

You guys are obviously entitled to your opinions, but for me it`s still the best sports radio show in the city by miles.

I agree Daniel. When I criticize, it is because I would like improvements, not because I plan to leave. It’s just a radio station, it’s only sports, and I prefer the comfort level of people I know and like.

I can barely hear TSN a lot of the time, and I always seem to catch it when they are discussing hockey and the CFL, which are not my cup of tea. Plus, TSN’s insistence on bringing in Rob Ford on a weekly basis, who is a polarizing political figure, shows that they expect their demographic to be Ford-lovers, and, since I am not, I would rather spend my time with a station that doesn’t insult me in that way.

Nice tribute to Robbie Alomar by the Jays today. Great to see a full house for such an event! Now the Jays just need to remember how many great players they spent bucks on to make those Alomar Jays teams great. Molitor, Winfield, Henderson, Morris etc… Eventually this team has to play in the Free Agent Marketplace if they are serious about winning. Doesn’t mean spend stupid, but it does mean spending!

Yeah, I hear ya, Steve.

Gerry – Blair (who is usually pretty plugged into the Jays) has speculated that the Jays are feeling that they can’t drag out a rebuilding process forever. He feels they plan on making a run next season. Maybe they’ll open up the wallet a bit this offseason. We’ll see..

I agree great ceremony today. There have been some nice special occasions and big crowds this summer (the Phillies series, the recent Yankees series, today…a lot of 40K plus crowds. Nice to see.)

Are people listening to Cybulski? Just really doesn’t do it for me. Are people listening to TSN in general? I’ll flip in here and there, but there just isn’t much there that I prefer over The Fan. Although I’ll take Tatti/Hogan over The Fan’s evening/weekend guys (read: Lajoie).

@ Steve. I also feel there really is no need for Rob Ford to be on TSN on a weekly basis, because I don’t really need to hear from someone who isn’t a CFL expert make picks and he is brash and does not have a good radio voice.

But I think your partisan political leanings are starting to effect the way you run your day to day life, like avoiding an entire station because they bring in an opposite view of yours once a week? It seems you also can’t go a week here on the comment board without taking a shot at Rob Ford, whenever the oppourtunity arises, and you don’t even have to live in his city. As someone who is right of centre I find that PTS can get a little left wing at times(Cox, Brunt, Blair, Shannon are all left of centre guys Arthur and Grange were also although now they are no longer there), and if a segment comes on or a disscussion that I don’t agree with then I just turn the dial or respectfully disagree with their views. No need for me to bring it up here everyday or entirely avoid a station as I understand that many in the Sports media who are Toronto or Hamilton raised are generally coming from a left wing background.

Daniel, I truly honestly hope you are right. I am old enough to remember when every game was news, not sports news but news, and that energy was amazing.

Like Steve, we only bitch when we see an obvious ploy to piss on our legs and tell us its raining. the jays were a classy, winnning organization once, and not 50 years ago, and we would like to see some of that energy again.

great discussion as usual. it’s always nice to check in on this site after a few days away and see a thread with 20 comments. my two cents on the current issues:

– i’m currently on the borderline between bashing PTS because i care, and bashing it because it’s turned into a farce. like most people from toronto, i grew up listening to Bob. PTS in 2011 bears little resemblance to its former self. the bad segments outnumber the good ones these days, in my opinion. it may not be a bad show, but it’s no longer a reliable paragon for intelligent sports talk. the truly sad part is that most of the decline in quality can be explained in terms of lack of respect for the audience. i guess it’s hard to stay motivated when you’ve been on top for so long.

– i’ve added Tim&Sid to my podcast feed based on the recommendations from commenters here. i need to give it a couple of weeks to get a handle on the show. there are a lot of inside jokes. TSM might consider doing a pressbox with those guys. they would have a different angle on doing sports radio in toronto.

– i hope that TSN is open to making substantial changes to its line-up for the fall. for those who have not been listening, have a listen to some of Hayes’ interviews. He’s excellent. He should have a more prominent time slot in my opinion. Cybulski is still trying too hard to be hip and to become friends with his guests rather than asking good questions. lots of room for improvement over at TSN.

happy “summer of Roj” long weekend everyone.

Plebian,

Thanks for the comments. Please don’t let the hanle fool you: I live in Toronto half the time (my wife lives there), and I do feel the need to mention Ford, since the reason he appears there is to appeal to a demographic. I would gladly not mention politics, but sports and politics are often interconnected, and TSN and Ford are playing a little game, knowing that Ford appeals to the right-wing conservatives, and those are the people who tend to listen to sports-talk radio. (He won’t appear on CBC radio.)

Again, I don’t mean to cause offense, but I would like to make it clear that I don’t share that viewpoint and that the new station is, sometimes, offending some listeners (at least me). I am not saying this, of course, to offend you for your political viewpoints, but this is the only site where I can post this, and I would like to think that someone from TSN reads this.

Simply put: getting in Ford once a week was a calculated move by both Ford and TSN, and I want to point out that some people who listen to sports radio are not interested in this facile charade.

As long as Ford keeps up his appearances, I may keep up the comments. Again, no offense, but I would expect the same comments from a conservative if Noam Chomsky or Bob Rae gave his football picks while avoiding the regular media.

Steve (Hamilton)

I don’t live in Toronto or work there, but obviously am very aware of the polical landscapte. That said, I remember hearing much about Rob Ford and his love for football (coaches High School I believe) long before he became mayor. I presumed TSN was taking advantage of having a Football loving mayor, given they the CFL channel in Canada.

Question for you Steve, I seem to recall David Miller being a guest on the Fan590 quite a bit. Not weekly but seemed biweekly at teams. He hardly ever had anything sports related to add to conversations. (And yes I know he played rugby, my buddy played against him) My question again is, do the people who object to Ford on TSN, did they have a problem with Miller’s regular appearances on the Fan? If not, isn’t this full of hypocrisy?

I haven’t listened enough to TSN to hear much of Ford on TSN. But did hear lots of Miller years ago.

Good point Gerry – thanks. I didn’t remember that. I appreciate it.