Next week starts a new era again, at least temporarily, in Washington D.C. radio. Where Tony Kornheiser was previously on the air during the late morning drive time (9am - 1pm, actually 9am - 11am, with a repeat in the next two hour block), starting on Monday, May 1, 2006, fans of Mr. Tony will be left without their fix for at least several months.
Kornheiser, who is leaving to become the 3rd man in the new ESPN Monday Night Football booth (along with Mike Tirico and Joe Thiesman) is taking approximately 6 months off from the radio 'gig' to prepare himself for the MNF job.
He warned his listeners over the last several months that he'd be leaving, and put on a great show all the way up to the end (though I missed today's show, so I'm not sure how things went on his 'last' broadcast before the break).
Politically, I don't think I could be farther from the man, but Kornheiser has always done a great radio show, and has been a great asset to the Washington radio market. He's brought in a host of friends and other journalists in enjoyable banter where he uses self-depricating humor and plays stupid to ask the questions most listeners would want answers to but aren't sure who or how to ask them of.
Sadly, for at least the near future, there will be (at least to me) a very noticable drop in the quality of the local sports talk radio. WTEM, Sports Talk 980, 980 AM in the D.C. market, is moving their former afternoon drive show, the barely appropriately named "The Sports Reporters" (stolen long ago from ESPN TV) show to the 9am - 1pm window. The show is hosted by idiot, I mean, sports savant in-extrordinaire, Andy Pollin (apparently no relation to Abe Pollin, owner of the Washington Wizards, former owner of the Washington Capitals) who is paired with Steve Czaban. Czaban somehow got himself a national show on Fox sports radio which airs in the early morning hours, though I'm not sure who he has pictures of to have gotten the job.
To be fair, Pollin and Czaban are entertaining, but that's about it. They aren't what I would call reporters. They're wannabe jocks, and they enjoy talking sports, though are far from hardnosed reporters. They occassionally are joined by Chris Knoche who is a former coach and now color man for the University of Maryland mens basketball radio broadcasts. Otherwise, they typically are joined by one local sports reporter, or perhaps a play-by-play man from one of the local teams (though they miss the Nationals in their rotation, along with the Capitals and Redskins, so just who do they include?).
I'd love to see something better come along, and perhaps would even demand something from a national show, but The TEaM lost all of the ESPN network programming they previous had (or will be losing it soon) over to Redskins team owner Daniel Synder's new radio venture (which has yet to begin it's real broadcasts, currently still broadcasting ethnic programming or other programming on the few relatively weak signaled stations in the area). They could perhaps put some Fox sports radio program shows on in the time block, but given the quality of the shows (such as Czaban's), I'm not sure I'd want that. So, it seems pretty clear that for now I'm gonna be left wanting while waiting impatiently for the return of Mr. Tony.
Come back soon T.K. Stack Money. D.C. radio is gonna miss you.
