I could have posted this in a couple of places, but rather than following on to threads such as BakerStreets article about Network Execs and disease, or my own Goodbye Mr. Tony, I figured I'll go anew here.
Note to the hypocritical double-talking idiots that are running Sportstalk 980, AM 980, WTEM in the Washington, D.C. region -- and btw, cc: to the idiot air talent you have on in your ill-named Sports Reporters segment (which I still can't figure out why the name is applied and/or why ESPN hasn't sued the pants off you idiots for misappropriating the name that they've used for their TV show for so long) -- your stated reasons for your current shuffling of your talent, and the resulting schedule are beyond lame.
Claims that the D.C. market wants local oriented shows are about as dead wrong as they can be. First, the D.C. market is made up of transient listeners. A great portion of the listeners in the D.C. area aren't from the D.C. area at all, and instead moved there because of business or political ties. So making idiotic statements that the D.C. listeners don't want to hear a 15 minute segment about what the St. Louis Cardinals (as an example you all gave this a.m.) are doing -- unless the Nationals are playing them -- is about as wrong as you get.
Let me remind the sports jock wannabes that sports fans are fans of sports in general. Sure, we have our own favorite teams, and sure, we'd like more and better emphasis on the local teams, but you know what -- we have other places to get that information. Places like the local newspapers, and heh, better yet, a new Washington Post radio station thanks to their partnership with Bonneville programming and the people behind newser WTOP FM 103.5. With WTWP now airing where WTOP AM used to be (AM 1500), the real sports reporters from the larger of the two main newspapers in the area will be in long form shows talking the talking and airing 15 minute, or more, segments on the local teams.
So why should I bother to listen to a local sports talk station that just puts on the same tired hosts, or the same tired callers, to talk about the same tired subjects over and over again?
Thank gawd that I have Satellite Radio. It'll be worth the subscription fee each month to get away from your idiots and your brand of programming. Thanks for nothing to the suits at Clear Channel that were too cheap to hold onto any of the ESPN national programming, and thanks for nothing to the local sports and programming directors at WTEM. You deserve your fate. I hope there's a station for Mr. Tony to come back to in several months, but I expect by then you'll have been turned into a business radio or political radio station and gotten lost completely in the market, beaten over the head by Redskins owner Daniel Snyder's Red Zebra entertainment (or whatever his radio venture will be called), even with the relatively weak signals they'll be using.
Between sat-rad and competition, I'd say WTEM is toast.
