By TSM
Perhaps It’s just me.
Perhaps it’s time that I realized I am simply getting old. I woke up and suddenly I am wearing glasses for the first time in 42 years. I find that my time is not really mine anymore and those precious moments I do have, I want them to be pretty damn good.
I used to, it seems anyway, to have a lot more time to have the radio on in the background, to catch more of the daily shows and to just plain old listen in. I certainly don’t now.
I grew up watching Sportsline each and every night.
I watched CNN Sports when they kicked off.
I watched TSN and or Sportsnet each and every night when they began too.
Now?
Not so much.
Between, twitter, facebook and other mediums leading to youtube or other video platforms, I just don’t need the nightly highlight show anymore. I watch games live when I want; I watch tv and movies when I want. I watch highlights I want to see and read a myriad of articles when and I want.
There was a time, was there not where sports radio was 90% about the interview, the analysis and 10% about the “shtick”? When did it that get reversed at least as it relates to the morning show? This hasn’t happened on the drive home show has it? When I listen to both McCown and Naylor, the bulk of the show, at least the meat of both are heavily guest programming. When I listen to Brady/Walker or Richards, at least when I am in the car which is roughly from 7:55-8:20 it’s all light banter. I hear more comedy than I do substance. I certainly am not hearing the type of information I want to hear. Is it just me?
Take last night. Awesome Raptors game. In that window that I was in the car I wanted to hear the best analysis from the best in the business. Same thing with the NHL games. Even the baseball games.
I get it. It can’t be like that all the time in the morning drive. There has to be some dead time.
On my drive in this am, I caught the tail of Jack Armstrong on TSN and I got nothing useful to me the rest of the time from either station. When I get in my car this afternoon my drive home will start on FM radio.
Something has changed though hasn’t it?
It can’t be that I am just driving in a the exact same time every day and that happens to be the time when there aren’t any quests available can it?
The city roads are packed during my commute every morning. I am not the only guy the car.
I didn’t like hearing from Ken Dryden’s brain then. I don’t miss Chris Shultz’s moustache.
It just seems to be that both morning show are more about the sizzle and less about the steak.
Is that what the audience wants?
With all due respect to Richards, Brady and Walker, I think they do great jobs on interviews. I really do. I think the quality drops off when they provide the analysis, sorry I do and it hits rock bottom when it tries to get cute or fun.
I am no expert. I know what I like and what I listen to. When either station goes away from the guest- and they both get great guests, I switch to the other. If other is doing the same thing I move over to music and I am done.
Perhaps the better question is has the 24 hour constant coverage killed sports news consumption?
Back in the day, I used to wait for PrimeTime Sports to come on the air because it was the equivalent to Nightline on the news side. Whatever the big news of the day was you knew would the topic of the day on PTS. If there was a hiring, a firing, a trade – the key players would be on PTS.
Morning shows used to pick that up to. Whatever happened the day or night before used to be what you would expect to hear on morning shows. God help the folks on air in between morning drive and drive home. I never knew how they [email protected]#@!#@! they filled their shows every day, and to be honest I still don’t.
Like I said, maybe it’s just a sign of old age and longing for the good old days.
I can tell you that I was a huge fan of the medium.
I currently have a void.
TSM