Sports Talk Radio - What makes you change the station?

[borchard]

On the Sports Animal, whenever I hear the Ft Jack I IMMEDIATELY change the channel. I can not STAND to listen to him ,or any other odds/betting show. Not interested.
It's hard to say this, since he died recently, but I never listened to Bob Barry Jr. I know he was a nice man. And I knew his brother when I was in college, but I never liked listening to him.
And for an ego as big as Traber's, he gets offended SO easily?!?

[bradh]

And for an ego as big as Traber's, he gets offended SO easily?!?

I've never understood that

[SoonerDave]

On the Sports Animal, whenever I hear the Ft Jack I IMMEDIATELY change the channel. I can not STAND to listen to him ,or any other odds/betting show. Not interested.
It's hard to say this, since he died recently, but I never listened to Bob Barry Jr. I know he was a nice man. And I knew his brother when I was in college, but I never liked listening to him.
And for an ego as big as Traber's, he gets offended SO easily?!?

And he's on right now. Changing the station as we speak. I *hate* the gambling tout services posing as "guests." That's something that IS irritating.

[bradh]

And he's on right now. Changing the station as we speak. I *hate* the gambling tout services posing as "guests." That's something that IS irritating.

Get used to it, ESPN is openly playing the gambling angle now, even with college sports. I'm sure the NCAA isn't too happy about that.

[okatty]

^I posted a USA today article about this in the Big 12 forum. Last weekend was a dramatic shift in terms of their reporting on ESPN, both in game, Game Day (made picks against spread), game updates. I for one love it (just cannot stand Fat Jack) but think this is going to be a conversation that will be had a lot in the future.

BTW - Meg Alexander is now selling cars on the radio.

[OKCinsomniac]

I don't mind Ms. Lane at all. Considering the number of male enhancement and gambling tout ads they air, a few messages advocating character and leadership aren't going to hurt anyone.

+1 - BBL bothers me much less than the "touchdown!" spot they keep running. Though at this point I always get this mental image of her writing her radio scripts, flustered and frustrated with the state of the world in which we live, writing, "Just pull your heads out of your ***** and get your **** together!" Then thinking about it for a moment, scratching it out and writing, "parents, take responsibility for your kids" or whatever the message-du-jour-that-probably-should-be-obvious-to-everyone-but-apparently-isn't is.

[okatty]

MORE:

*IRS/Tax assistance advertisements
*DFS commercials (Draft Kings, Fan Duel) haha almost funny to even mention this!
*The incredible irritating "Jimmy" with the overbearing/overdone East coast accent advertising the snoring device (Zeppah?)

[SoonerDave]

"Welcome to your Thunder Exhibition Pregame Show...."

[borchard]

I prefer the Franchise, over the Sports Animal... EXCEPT on OU game days. There is nothing more useless, to me, than listening to the "official" OU pre-game show.
Toby Rowland: "So, Coach Stoops, what do you think about your opponent this week?"
Coach: "Well, [insert name here] is a great football team."
TR: "Thank you for that insight..."
ad nauseum......

I listen to Al and Jim's pre-game show, because then i WANT to hear the snark, the sarcasm, the honest opinions.

[SoonerDave]

I prefer the Franchise, over the Sports Animal... EXCEPT on OU game days. There is nothing more useless, to me, than listening to the "official" OU pre-game show.
Toby Rowland: "So, Coach Stoops, what do you think about your opponent this week?"
Coach: "Well, [insert name here] is a great football team."
TR: "Thank you for that insight..."
ad nauseum......

I listen to Al and Jim's pre-game show, because then i WANT to hear the snark, the sarcasm, the honest opinions.

Agree completely. I realize that Al isn't as "in the loop" as he used to be in the 70s/80's, but I still prefer the frank discussion.

I got away from the OU broadcasts after they canned John Brooks *years* ago, and the primary reason they did that was because Brooksie got *very* critical on-air of the then-current staff (Gibbs) for a really poor performance against, as I recall, Colorado. I get the idea of not biting the hand that feeds you, but by the same token I never got why you wouldn't want the most frank opinion possible from the very guys who call the games. (It's also one of the reasons I don't like the Thunder-produced broadcasts, because it's so obvious the owners control an only-positive agenda, which is just insulting to the fans IMHO).

For Brooks, I *loved* the honesty, and I thought and still think Brooks was the best PBP I heard. I know a lot of people who grew up on Bob Barry Sr, and talk about how good he was in his heyday, but I grew up with him being the OSU guy.

I think my secret fantasy career notion would be OU radio play by play. That would be fun.

Anyway, I'll stop derailing the thread now. I'm trying to go back to the Franchise every so often, and will catch a few minutes of their morning show, but man, when McCrite comes on, I think my hand breaks the sound barrier racing to my radio control to change it to something entertaining, like the noise of random creatures screaming in the night, or fingernails on chalkboards, or Slim Whitman albums.

[okatty]

^Brooks was fantastic! Way up there on the best ever list in my view at least for any of the state teams. He and Switzer ended up butting heads and he was shown the exit door. 16 years of calling OU football and basketball when radio REALLY mattered - very few OU games made TV in those days and we had the probation TV ban in the early 70's. So radio was the only broadcast for a couple of years.

[SoonerDave]

^Brooks was fantastic! Way up there on the best ever list in my view at least for any of the state teams. He and Switzer ended up butting heads and he was shown the exit door. 16 years of calling OU football and basketball when radio REALLY mattered - very few OU games made TV in those days and we had the probation TV ban in the early 70's. So radio was the only broadcast for a couple of years.

I remember when Mike Treps did the play-by-play for a year or two - Mizzou 75 was classic with his, "Run, Joe, Run!" call. They brought in a guy for one season in 1977 named Gary Johnson and moved Treps to color. Johnson was a very professional radio voice, and seemed like a nice enough sports guy, but he had about as much passion for OU as I would for a pile of vegetables. Then Brooksie came in for I think '77-on.

I'd have to check some historical info to be sure, but I remember Brooks going ballistic on that Colorado game. OU was trying to get past the debacle that had become the very end of the Switzer era, Gibbs had been coach for a year or two, but OU had played really poorly against Colorado. Brooks got really frank on-air, saying something like "Something is wrong, people. This is ridiculous." (again, not an exact quote - this is a paraphrase from 20 years ago). There were rumblings that Brooks crossed swords with Donnie Duncan about his being so critical on-air, and the very next season, OU dumped Clear Channel as the radio broadcast rights holder, and Brooks was out.

I stopped listening to the OU radio after BBSr's second or third return year (or thereabouts), because even then he was starting to make what I thought were strange mistakes, and, heck, for me, he just wasn't Brooks.

From what I can tell, it seems Toby Rowland does a nice job, although radio isn't nearly as important as it used to be. I'd still love to try it someday I've actually listened to some of his radio broadcasts and his "scene setters" are becoming a *very* popular part of the pregame....

And I think it's the OU flagship component that is giving Tyler Media the latitude to keep the Franchise as an all-sports station even in light of the flagging ratings. I figure they're going to give it at least another year with some more on-air talent shakeups, especially in light of their expansion into Tulsa, before they even remotely think about changing the format.

[borchard]

I remember when Mike Treps did the play-by-play for a year or two - Mizzou 75 was classic with his, "Run, Joe, Run!" call. They brought in a guy for one season in 1977 named Gary Johnson and moved Treps to color. Johnson was a very professional radio voice, and seemed like a nice enough sports guy, but he had about as much passion for OU as I would for a pile of vegetables. Then Brooksie came in for I think '77-on.

I'd have to check some historical info to be sure, but I remember Brooks going ballistic on that Colorado game. OU was trying to get past the debacle that had become the very end of the Switzer era, Gibbs had been coach for a year or two, but OU had played really poorly against Colorado. Brooks got really frank on-air, saying something like "Something is wrong, people. This is ridiculous." (again, not an exact quote - this is a paraphrase from 20 years ago). There were rumblings that Brooks crossed swords with Donnie Duncan about his being so critical on-air, and the very next season, OU dumped Clear Channel as the radio broadcast rights holder, and Brooks was out.

I stopped listening to the OU radio after BBSr's second or third return year (or thereabouts), because even then he was starting to make what I thought were strange mistakes, and, heck, for me, he just wasn't Brooks.

From what I can tell, it seems Toby Rowland does a nice job, although radio isn't nearly as important as it used to be. I'd still love to try it someday I've actually listened to some of his radio broadcasts and his "scene setters" are becoming a *very* popular part of the pregame....

And I think it's the OU flagship component that is giving Tyler Media the latitude to keep the Franchise as an all-sports station even in light of the flagging ratings. I figure they're going to give it at least another year with some more on-air talent shakeups, especially in light of their expansion into Tulsa, before they even remotely think about changing the format.

For me, hands-down, John Brooks is the best play-by-play guy I ever heard in the local market. When I was at OU in the 80's I LOVED listening to him call whatever sport he called. And we used to laugh at OSU broadcasts becasue, even then, BBS was WWAAAAAYYY past his prime. And then he came to OU...and never left..... I have just recently started listening to OU broadcasts again.

And John Brooks was the BEST when he called Blazers games. I listened to every game i could on the radio. I know MANY people who came to the Blazers games with headset radios JUST so they could hear his call, and know what was going on.

[SoonerDave]

When my son was in HS playing football, we went up to the Tulsa area for a game and I actually had the pleasure of meeting Brooksie at the turnpike McDonald's on the way home one night. He was doing radio for one of the Tulsa area schools and was just as nice as he could be. Was a lot of fun going through some old OU memories!