Taking on NY Sports Talk

The State of New York Sportstalk.

With the breakup off Mike and the Dog as the culmination, I’m sad to report we have entered the dark-ages of NY Sportstalk. Now we aren’t at the level of Chicago sportstalk yet (Mark, Harry and Yvor on ESPN1000 is the worst thing I have ever heard) but it is getting close. There aren’t enough good voices, not enough conflicting opinions and too many homers on the NY airwaves. Right now there is not a single “must listen to” sports talk show in New York and coming from a guy who use to fall asleep to WFAN, wake up to it in the morning and literally would not walk out of my office without having my walkman pinned to my ear-drum.
Today I can honestly go days without listening anymore.




WFAN mornings
Boomer and Carton
Although it wasn't sports-talk they took some great real-estate held by Imus for about 20 years and took it from a rip-roaring time-slot to something which is absolutely brutal. Nothing whatsoever could get me to listen to this show. Boomer is a pompous fat-head and Cartoon is a clown. Intolerable

ESPN Radio mornings
Mike and Mike.
Great concept and great show when you get two mikes (or three when the Coach joins ‘em) but this show has WAY too many commercials and there are way too many times you have a crappy guest host (read Eric Kuselias). Greenberg and Golic have something great together but break ‘em up it's like watching Dan Le Batard and JA Adande hosting PTI..



MidDay WFAN
Benigno and Roberts
When you sit down and listen you know you are basically going to get Mets Talk for 3 hours, which in itself is boring. They over-analyze every move that Manuel makes but somehow they are not insightful. They do touch other subjects but nobody cares about the Nets and after about a year of this experiment I think it is obvious that bringing Evan Roberts in with Benigno is neutering the best on-air personality WFAN has left. Joe’s show was great solo overnights, good when tagged up with Sid and almost dreadful with Roberts. Now I’m not totally against Roberts, I think he’s got a couple of interesting things with it but I’m just not sure he brings the best out of Joe. Truly the best thing they could do is split them up and bring in Rich Eisen to work with Joe. You’d at least get some good NFL talk out of it. Benigno is in that tier of guy who might be getting a bit too much exposure now also with his SNY stuff.

MidDay ESPN Radio
Kellerman and Kenny
This show is basically Yankee talk for 2 hours and I am a Yankee fan and these guys make me want to kill myself



WFAN Afternoon Drive
Mike Francesa
The Sports Pope is still the closest thing to a must listen. After 19 years it is very apparent that he worked best when he would go back and forth with MadDog and either argue or just talk with each other. They were never good with callers, they were very up-and-down with guests but their interaction with each other made for great radio.
In the big picture Francesa works best with some kind of partner. From what he says it doesn’t sound like they will do that as he will fly solo for the next 5 years but I can now see them bringing in a second tier guy (a Brandon Tierney type to his Stephen A. Smith) who will allow them to have some good back-and-forth. Maybe they make that Chris Carlin (who I like but really doesn’t need any more airtime), or otherwise some national guys to do more frequent spots with him..

ESPN Radio Afternoon Drive
Michael Kay
Absolutely un-listenable



Evenings WFAN
Steve Summers
Terrible, just terrible

Evenings ESPN
Brandon Tierney
Now I've come a little late to the BT show because I've always been such an WFAN junky but I think the most talented young guy in New York. He mixes it up, can talk sports and is not afraid to dabble a little bit in modern-culture. Great show, good voice and WFAN would be wise to make a real stab at this guy.



Overnights WFAN
Tony Paige and/or Mark Malusis
Paige can talk some boxing but has no strong opinions on anything else, Malusis is better on the other side of the glass

Overnight ESPN
Up All Night with Jason Smith
I love this show although it is nationally syndicated. The dude is a Jet fan which is enough for me but he is also very entertaining and does a very steady show