Sports Talk Radio

[RobDeer 45]

I'm curious what the majority of people listen to on their way to and from work and during work (if possible).

 

In the past I had jumped around quite a bit but I'm now all ESPN radio. For the record, I rarely watch anything on ESPN, except the sporting events and college gameday. I think their radio hosts are some of the best. Mike and Mike can be a little shticky at times, but when they are talking sports, they are pretty solid. I bet I will get a lot of push back on this, but I love Cowherd! He fires me up at times but that's his thing. I think he's hilarious and also pretty spot on with most of his stuff. I also think he's extremely talented. To be on, by himself, every day, is amazing. Then I go to SVP and Russillo. I believe their show is the best. I think it could be in my sweet spot because of all the references they make to things from their (my) generation. Some of the stuff they say and do, absolutely makes me laugh out loud. I also like how straight forward they are and that they aren't afraid to call people out.

 

I then listen to the local Minneapolis radio show with Dan Barreiro. I listened to him when I lived in Minneapolis and continued to listen to him a fair amount as I moved around for 3.5 years. Now that I'm moving back to Minneapolis, I look forward to listening to him on a regular basis.

[patrickgpe]

Jim Rome is the only sports talk show I listen to regularly, and I'll put on the brewers post game show on WSSP on the way back from the brewers games.

[chadomac]

Heh, I cannot stand Jim Rome.

 

Please keep in mind that I say the comments below as a Brewer fan that is casually interested in the NFL as well...

 

I listen to 1250 AM / 105.7 THE FAN almost exclusively. I love the Brewers coverage on there, particularly the post-game shows with Tim Allen. I think Tim is the greatest, mostly because of his positive attitude that is all too rare nowadays.

 

Bill Michaels gives the Brewers more coverage than I would expect him to (and I appreciate that), but he's not as funny as he thinks he is.

 

The Big Show is pretty terrible and that's mostly because of Gary Ellerson and Leroy Butler - who don't know anything about baseball but pretend to. I don't even try to listen to them anymore at this point, but I do appreciate the amount of coverage the Brewers get on 1250 in relation to everything else, and I make a point to listen to the post-game shows even the next day on their web app.

[Outlander]

The Mike Heller show is good and Ted Davis is there so there is decent Bucks coverage. Also available in Madison and Milwaukee so that works for me since I am at both often.

[ewitkows]

670 out of Chicago. Our sports guys are just horrible

[patrickgpe]

Heh, I cannot stand Jim Rome.

 

Please keep in mind that I say the comments below as a Brewer fan that is casually interested in the NFL as well...

 

I listen to 1250 AM / 105.7 THE FAN almost exclusively. I love the Brewers coverage on there, particularly the post-game shows with Tim Allen. I think Tim is the greatest, mostly because of his positive attitude that is all too rare nowadays.

 

Bill Michaels gives the Brewers more coverage than I would expect him to (and I appreciate that), but he's not as funny as he thinks he is.

 

 

i think it just comes down to what style you prefer chad. I enjoy less "straight sports talk" as I find it boring and repetitive, which is why i rarely have 1250 on. I do put the WSSP postgame show on my way home from the stadium though and I do enjoy Tim Allen.

[jerichoholicninja]

I gave up on sports talk a while ago. Between the callers and hosts, it's like reading the comments section on an article. What broke it for me was listening to 107.5 and the host saying that Kosuke Fukudome was a better player than Corey Hart because Fukudome had more runs scores and "runs scored is a pretty important stat." Their baseball talk was horrendous. Whoever decided to let Johnny Gray talk about baseball should have been hanged.

[Point Beer Is Best]

I gave up on sports talk a while ago. Between the callers and hosts, it's like reading the comments section on an article. What broke it for me was listening to 107.5 and the host saying that Kosuke Fukudome was a better player than Corey Hart because Fukudome had more runs scores and "runs scored is a pretty important stat." Their baseball talk was horrendous. Whoever decided to let Johnny Gray talk about baseball should have been hanged.

 

I quit listening to 107.5 at work for the same reasons. I'll still listen occasionally in the car, but almost every day I'll hear a caller or a host say something that makes me say out loud, "ugh, WHAT?!" The other day, Rookie was lamenting the fact that the Brewers had picked up Gallardo's option and said "I don't know why they want to invest that kind of money on a guy who's only 25 wins above .500 for his career." I almost drove off the road. He followed that up with "He was 8-11 this past year, so this was clearly the worst season of his career." This is 2014! Are we still using Wins as a valid statistic to judge a pitcher's worth? My God.

[Baldkin]

920/1070 Out of Milwaukee/Madison respectively. I can't stand the 1250/The Fan guys and Heller & Ted Davis in the afternoon are simply superb.

[NeedMoreFans]

920/1070 Out of Milwaukee/Madison respectively. I can't stand the 1250/The Fan guys and Heller & Ted Davis in the afternoon are simply superb.

 

And 1070 in Madison is now on 100.7 FM. I listen to Heller as well. I listened to Homer for a while, but got very sick of all the callers. Heller doesn't really do many callers, and when he does, he keeps them to a minimum. I like Lucas/Dawson in the morning. It was better with Lepay, but I get why he got out of the radio show.

[Invader3K]

I don't listen as much as I used to, but I usually listen to 1250 when I have the chance. I used to like 540 ESPN, but I always seem to tune in during whatever national shows they have on, and hear them talking about the Lakers or some other national story I really don't care about. 1250 has very good coverage of the Brewers and other local sports.

 

540's local shows also seem to focus heavily on the Green Bay Packers, and that bores me tremendously. I love the Packers, but don't need to hear about how practice on any given day went.

[TheEndless7]

670 out of Chicago. Our sports guys are just horrible

 

Seconded. And I didn't even realize how awful they were by comparison until someone convinced me to listen to the score.

[trwi7]

Bill Michaels gives the Brewers more coverage than I would expect him to (and I appreciate that), but he's not as funny as he thinks he is.

 

He doesn't know close to as much as he thinks either.

 

Also disagree about his coverage. It could be the middle of June with absolutely no football going on and he'll find some way to talk about football. Guy is a complete clown.

[Bikeage77]

I tend to listen to Chuck and Wickett in the morning, but it's only for a bit. I like those guys, but I can see why it drives others nuts. Wickett isn't all that funny majority of the time. If I get the chance, I'll listen to the Dan Patrick show on the Big 920. I used to listen to Jim Rome all the time, but when Jay Mohr got his own show, and Romes schtick grew tired. I loved listening to Jay Mohr Sports on 920 each day at lunch, but now that they have the time change, I'll rarely get to hear him anymore, especially since I'll have to stream it on Fox Sports Radio.

 

I'll listen to the Big Show, but agreed Gary and LeRoy don't really know what they're talking about.

 

I listen to the MOJO show after Big Show while making dinner, sometimes I'll stream Petros and Money.

 

I used to hate Farrell on the Bench, but I got over his voice being ridiculous, and I generally enjoy his takes.

[Thurston Fluff]

I gave up on sports talk a while ago. Between the callers and hosts, it's like reading the comments section on an article. What broke it for me was listening to 107.5 and the host saying that Kosuke Fukudome was a better player than Corey Hart because Fukudome had more runs scores and "runs scored is a pretty important stat." Their baseball talk was horrendous. Whoever decided to let Johnny Gray talk about baseball should have been hanged.

 

That was the same station whose afternoon show hosts once said Tony Gwynn JR. was the best player on the team in handling the bat. Setting aside what handling the bat is supposed to mean, saying Gwynn JR was the best at anything offensively is a joke. They haven't got a clue and are still there. For the most part I stopped listening to sports talk radio. I liked Justin Hull on 95,3 but he is no longer doing a show. For the most part it got so repetitive I would know what was going to be said the day before the shows aired. Not to mention pretty much every show carry the same story lines as each other. I now bang my head against a wall instead of hearing the same hosts and callers say the same thing over and over. It has been an drastic improvement to my mental well being.

[craigharmann]

Bill Michaels gives the Brewers more coverage than I would expect him to (and I appreciate that), but he's not as funny as he thinks he is.

 

Funny thing about Michaels. Back in the 90's when he first started on WTMJ, I thought he called himself The Big Eunuch. So in my mind, that always stuck.

 

As for sports talk, I've always tried to listen to local sports talk. When I lived in Portland, I was subjected to Cowherd before he became national. That stunk. When I lived in Sheboygan, I tried to listen to Milwaukee sports radio. It was alright. Living in San Antonio, I listened to local talk. Now, in Houston, the local guys are pretty good. The station I listen to isn't much of homers, they're pretty fair.

[Invader3K]

Bill Michaels gives the Brewers more coverage than I would expect him to (and I appreciate that), but he's not as funny as he thinks he is.

 

Funny thing about Michaels. Back in the 90's when he first started on WTMJ, I thought he called himself The Big Eunuch. So in my mind, that always stuck.

 

I've found that Michaels has become much more tolerable now that he's not on "the flagship." I think maybe having some freedom to not constantly kiss the rear ends of the local franchises has made him much better on air.

[FVBrewerFan]

I've come full circle on Jim Rome for some reason. Couldn't stand him at first, then slowly but surelt got sucked in and listened every day. Now I never listen to him anymore.

 

I'm in the Fox Valley now so I don't know most of the Milwaukee guys anymore. There was a guy up here for a while I enjoyed- Shane Sparks. He was similar to Rome in that you loved or hated him, but you never knew what would come up on any given day. But that's what I liked about him, he wasn't cliche. One quick example, he dared to point out Favre's flaws up here in Packer country, and backed it up with facts. People freaked out!

[GAME05]

I think this is mostly why I won't listen to Jim Rome.

[hawing]

There is virtually nothing about me that matches the talk radio demographic (both sports and any spot on the political spectrum), so why am I even posting here? Only to describe the last time I gave sports talk radio a chance, and after which I wrote it off:

 

In 2008, I was headed home from a weekday game with a coworker. We were driving into a severe thunderstorm, so I was inclined to keep the radio on WTMJ since they are quick to cut in for severe weather updates. But when Bill Michaels got into SHOULD THE BREWERS SIGN BARRY BONDS I had to change the station. Just, no.

[Outlander]

Some of the topics can get ridiculous but there is only so much to talk about, the Fan alone has 12 hours of local talk every day during the week.

[patrickgpe]

I've come full circle on Jim Rome for some reason. Couldn't stand him at first, then slowly but surelt got sucked in and listened every day. Now I never listen to him anymore.

 

I'm in the Fox Valley now so I don't know most of the Milwaukee guys anymore. There was a guy up here for a while I enjoyed- Shane Sparks. He was similar to Rome in that you loved or hated him, but you never knew what would come up on any given day. But that's what I liked about him, he wasn't cliche. One quick example, he dared to point out Favre's flaws up here in Packer country, and backed it up with facts. People freaked out!

 

me too, i loved him for many years and then started getting sick of him. I started listening to Jay Mohr and liked it and eventually found him annoying, turned back on Rome and wondering why i have gave up on him.

 

Also Laura, The big unit should not be anyone's barometer on what is good about sports talk.

[hawing]

Also Laura, The big unit should not be anyone's barometer on what is good about sports talk.

I hear you on that. It just seems like talk radio (sports and non) is designed primarily to rile people up, and that's not what I want from the radio. Again, though, I'm not the demographic.

[pete]

I only really follow baseball, so that's a limiting factor. There really isn't much baseball talk a lot of the time so I actually listen to a couple baseball podcasts. I used to love the Bucks and haven't been able to rekindle my interest, but it seems like time for another try.

 

With that said, I just surf but spend a lot of time listening to WSCR and the ESPN affiliate out of Chicago with the exception of Boers and Bernstein - BF rules prohibit me expressing how I feel about them.

 

The 920 guys here are cool but they rarely talk baseball. Homer is losing it mentally. I pretty much never agree with Bill Michaels. Ellerson's answer to everything baseball is trade prospects, get aces. When I listen to Squeaky, oops, I mean Sparky I sometimes think it must ba an act. He's just trying to juice ratings, but then I listen for a while and go back to thinking he's... I don't even know how to describe it.

 

But has anyone heard Michaels when he goes postal on a caller? He starts screaming, tells the producer to cut them off, calls them an idiot several times as well as other things. I don't know why but it just seems comical to me.

[BuckyBrewer61]

I'm into sport talk radio. Honestly, I think most of it is crap, mainly because a lot of the topics get repetitive and beaten like a dead horse, and a lot of topics aren't really worth talking about, but you have to fill the time somehow. But hey - I'm a sports nut and like some sports talk anyway, gives me a bit of sports news, information, and gets me excited for the games.

 

I typically listen to The Big Show on 105.7 (formerly 1250 WSSP) on my way home - it's just ok, none of the personalities really do it for me (but see the above). But I do have to say one thing really annoys me. Two of the guys on the show (half the show) are from Chicago! And self-proclaimed Bears and (I think) Cubs fans! They are fine at their job - professional, decent conversationalists. It's not personal, but I'm sorry, I don't want to hear a Chicago fan's opinion on Wisconsin sports. It's not fair to them, but sports are illogical and territorial, and when it comes to sports I don't like Chicago, their teams, and their fans. And if they ever talk about a WI vs IL matchup, their opinion is immediately invalidated. And while they do a pretty job avoiding it - I never want to hear anything about Chicago sports unless they are the next game on the Packers/Brewers/Bucks/Badgers schedule. I don't care about Derrick Rose, Theo Epstein, Jay Cutler, or anyone else in Chicago, but occasionally those topics come up. And when they do, I change the station immediately. Because I'm a crazy illogical sports fan...which I would imagine is their main demographic.

 

But hey, other than that, that show is...adequate.