It’s Thursday night, May 28, 9pm, and I’m driving home. I whip the dial to the sportstalk station in Chicago to hear what might be going on.
Keep in mind, I already know, and I’m wondering which of these topical stories they might be talking about. Could it be…
1. The Blackhawks were just eliminated from the playoffs the day before. It was the best Blackhawk season in years.
2. The Cubs are melting down. Carlos Zambrano just got suspended, Ted Lilly just got thrown out of a game he wasn’t even in, and Milton Bradley is…well, Milton Bradley.
3. The Bulls’ star rookie Derrick Rose’s name came up prominently Thursday in a possible scandal involving his one year at Memphis University.
4. White Sox infielder Alexei Ramirez just had a lawsuit filed against him by a couple of guys who claim they were his “handlers” and haven’t been paid.
So I wait for the commercial break to end to find out which of these juicy topics might be on the table, all things that I’d have enough interest in to want to hear discussion about, the station comes out to Zac Something (their worst host, btw), and the first thing out of this moron’s mouth is:
“Zac (something) with you for the next FIVE HOURS, and we’ve got a LOT of Bears talk coming your way tonight!” he breathlessly yells.
After yelling a couple of obscenities and a bout of incredulous laughter, I turn the dial. What a bunch of f’en idiots. The Bears. In May. Who f’ing cares? My god.
I’ve needed something to get me to quit listening to this station, which has gotten progressively more irrelevant. I now have it.
4 responses so far ↓
1
Mazr
// May 30, 2009 at 6:18 am
I’m a daily Score listener. And not a Score defender by any means.
You have to remember Chicago is a Bears town. All those sports items may have occurred, but I guarantee you if you put a Bears show on from 9-9:30 P.M. twice a week in the offseason the phone lines would be jammed. And think about it, Zac Zaidman is the Bears beat reporter for the Score so of course he’s going to have some Bears talk in a five hour shift.
Also, by 9PM, three out of those 4 topics (Alexi being the odd one out) have been talked over and analyzed to death. Anytime a Bears subject is brought up during the day, the calls start streaming in. And with the addition of Cutler, it’s pretty much going to be ramped up even more. Heck, tune in today and one of the weekend hosts will do a segment on the LB they signed yesterday.
2
bjstone
// May 31, 2009 at 10:46 am
Mazr, while I don’t disagree with you that it’s a “Bears town” (which, to us outsiders, is a yuk and explains a lot about that town), it’s the same 10-12 fantasy football geeks and dorks that call in every time they talk “Bears”. Their ratings sink in the fall and winter, when 95% of what they talk about is Bears football.
Zac Whatever is a pathetic Bears apologist who is a bit of a jock sniffer, btw, so I do fully expect him to bring up his pet team whenever possible. He actually said that “Jerry Angelo has built another great team and Jerry Angelo always has built a team that at least has a shot.” This is a franchise that has made the playoffs 3 times in the last 14 years, with a total of two playoff wins in those 14 years. This team doesn’t always “have a shot”. But Zac and a few demented Bears fans who call him can go ahead and believe that all they want.
BTW, in that same time period Green Bay has 10 playoff appearances and Minnesota 8.
But back on point, you don’t talk about the Chicago Bears on May 29th. Bad radio. And it turns the majority of the audience off.
BTW, as for the “phone lines being jammed”, after he said it, I dialed, got straight through, and told the producer this same beef. The phone lines weren’t jammed.
3
Will Stevenson
// May 31, 2009 at 9:24 pm
In defense of Zach Zaidman, I worked with him when I was at WBBM in Chicago. He’s not a bad guy and a pretty good sportscaster. I doubt talk show host is really his thing (just like owning radio stations isn’t someone else’s thing), but he’s a good hard-working guy.
4
Mazr
// May 31, 2009 at 9:30 pm
BJ, my point wasn’t that the phone lines would be jammed on May 29th if a Bears topic was brought up. My point was that if you had a specific Bears show on twice a week, they would generate a lot of interest by phone calls.
Like I said in the original comment, almost all of those topics had been analyzed to death on Mully and Hanley, Hamp and Holmes, Murph and Boers and Bernstein. So after 6 P.M. or pretty much anytime he’s hosting solo, if you hear Zaidman (who is a big time Bears apologist)you’re going to hear some Bears. I don’t think I would base your opinion on the very limited time frame you were listening. Because let me tell you, by 9AM I was sick of the Z/Lilly/meltdown talk.
And if you want to bring up bad ratings, I would say anything past 8PM on the Score is going to get the crickets chirping.
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