Saturday, January 17, 2009

ESPN Radio Shakeup




Big changes are afoot at ESPN radio, as industry reports say Sports Nation and its curious pairing of John Seibel and Orestes Destrade has finally come to an end, making way for Doug Gottlieb to take over the drive time slot from 4 -7 PM.

The program shift completes the most forgettable span of ESPN programming since Beg, Borrow and Deal. ESPN radio's senior VP Mo Davenport explained the move:

"The overall strategy is to focus on strong personality-driven sports content between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m."

Meaning: John Seibel, you've had three hours a day for the last four years to actually grow your audience. Nobody's failed with this much exposure since Alan Colmes. So take your Air Force experience and fly the hell out of this timeslot.

ESPN radio wasn't done tinkering there. Colin Cowherd will have another full hour to urge listeners to blow up The Big Lead's servers (although one person can do as much damage posting a single comment). Cowherd will now piss off Big Ten football fans from 10 AM to 2 PM daily.

But wait, there's more. Mike Tirico's lifeless brand of non-entertainment is shifting an hour and will air from 2 to 4 PM- causing Scott Van Pelt to lose his one-hour show all together. Brian Kenny will be hosting from 8 to 10 PM. Sweet, that means more boxing and baseball, two sports that couldn't be losing more steam in the public's consciousness.




While Doug Gottlieb is yet another ESPN commentator that operates in the world of forced conviction, his basketball expertise is second to none. He can relate to the present day athletes based on his history of credit card fraud. He can also relate to many of today's best lawmakers as an army deserter. Either way, he's very inciteful and doesn't avoid controversy the way Mike Tirico has.

Speaking of Tirico, when will ESPN radio acknowledge that nobody sits around the radio these days to hear uninspired platitudes and endless colleague adulation? At one point we wondered if his pairing with Michele Tafoya was a plot by ESPN execs to entrap the NBA's lead play-by-play man into another scenario with sexual harrassment potential.

And I have to question how ESPN continues to bury one of its best talents - Ryen Russillo. The guy is funny, quick-witted and has no problem hitting on other radio personality's daughters.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

No Steve Czaban? Is this some kind of sick joke?

Anonymous said...

I miss the days of Olbermann, Bruno and Chuck Wilson!

Anonymous said...

best cursedcleveland.com post ever

Anonymous said...

Yall don't like Tirico because he thinks LeBron James is good at basketball.

P.S. Lima, that Lil Wayne concert was so fiiiiiiyyyyyyyaaaaaaaa!

Anonymous said...

Is there any news as to how this shake up will affect my steady dose of Jim Rome and Dan Patrick on 660 WBHR The Bear here in St. Cloud?

Anonymous said...

I live in DC and can verify Czabe's greatness.

Anonymous said...

It's time ESPN realized the genious of sports update stalwarts, Dan "The Duke" Davis, Jay Reynolds and Doug Brown, and promote them to SportsCenter AM slots... Sorry I am the only loser in the entire midwest up at 4:45am to hear SportsCenter AM.
Althought with the way things are going for Kenny Maine recently he could be filling that 4:45 am time slot soon. Who did that dude piss off?

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