Rick and Tom replaced by Mike and Mike on WDAE 620

I was sorry to hear today that the Rick Stroud and Tom Jones morning show that they have been replaced permanently by national radio show host Mike Greenburg and Mike Golic from ESPN Radio. I heard on another sports show on another station guest host saying it was probably ratings. It is funny that everyone claims to know why things happen in Tampa Bay radio. I guess by saving money and pulling in another syndicated broadcast, The Sports Animal just took another shot in the foot. Can't wait for the next Sports Animal programming update, should I become a fan of the Dan Lebatard show.

That's cheap channel for you. Don't know if the rumors are true anymore, but there was talk of ESPN breaking up Mike & Mike and having them do separate shows. What will WDAE do then? And FWIW I thought the cheap channel stations had a deal with Fox sports radio, WDAE can run both? It's one thing to just run play by play from another sports source, but if I were Fox sports, I would be a little upset that a major market station is also carrying regular shows from my chief competitor.

Fox Sports Radio airs on 1250 WHNZ. Since iHeart essentially is the one distributing FSR, they're obviously ok with Mohr in delay on 620 and overnights and weekends on 1250. You gotta remember, there's plenty of National sports radio and game broadcasts to go around. 1040 alone is already running parts of NBC and CBS Sports Radio, plus Westwood One play by play.

These guys were awful, they had no chemistry together. Jones would get "outraged" at something in Tampa sports and totally derail the show, and you could tell that Stroud was legit exasperated at Tom.

Case in point was three years ago when Josh McCown started crying during a press conference and Tom started yelling at Josh on-air for crying at the Q&A and kept yelling for three whole segments before Rick (who sounded legit annoyed) told him to give the schtick a rest and move on to another topic. Then, on Tuesday, Tom again tried to act all outraged and Rick pretty much yelled at him on-air and told him to drop the subject.

Three times in the ensuing weeks, Tom would try to bring up the Josh McCown crying incident and Rick would just tell him to zip it. I can't believe these two lasted as long as they did. They were a prime example of the need for less "live and local" in Tampa sports.

Thank you, iHeartRadio Tampa execs, for finally coming to your senses and putting a nationally syndicated show on the morning drive time for the first time on 620 in over two decades. Not all of us actually care about the Bucs/Lightning/Rays/Magic and would like to hear some Yankees/Cubs/Patriots/CowboysDodgers/Lakers/Knicks talk instead.