J
josephandrews
Guest
Doc, I disagree with you, I think. Let me explain. It will be a tough read.
First of all, I listened some to Farrell (sp?). He is different, but he is good.
Here's the deal. I want my sportstalk hosts to be (a) knowledgable; and (b) entertaining. As I listened to Farrell last night, he was both. In spades. The guy really does know sports. And he really is entertaining. And there's another component, too. (c) would be...I don't want sportstalk hosts to seem as if they're reaching...as if they're trying too hard. Farrell was not reaching last night. He was simply good. He knows radio as a medium, I think.
Now about rap. There is clearly an age-related dividing line here (35 and up aren't as rap-friendly?)...and probably a race-related dividing line, too (in some cases).
But I honestly do not believe that hard-core rap and sportstalk go together...as far as listeners are concerned...for reasons I'll try to explain below.
The absolutely worst thing to do, though, is for a host to try and bluff/fake his way through the rap thing. Andrew Siciliano is just a poser when it comes to rap...he is just awful awful awful...he doesn't get it and he never will and the phony way he tries to talk to Extravaganza callers about rap...click. Now, on the other hand, Petros P (1540 the Ticket), when he had the rap-off with Bruno...Petros gets it. He is a natural...and Bruno shouldn't have shut it down. No one expected Bruno to do as well...but the old guy tried some...and he knew he wasn't cool. So it was OK.
Bitterman Andrew thinks he is cool. And he is not. Bitterman took a liking to rap the same way that some high school pinheads join various clubs and volunteer on the occasional weekend at a hospital: to pad their college CV. Bitterman wanted street cred with blacks and black athletes. What a joke. It comes thru all the time that he is a poser rap-wise. Bitterman's efforts in these areas indicate that he doesn't get radio. And that Bitterman's bosses seem to ignore his deficiencies...well those are the same guys that literally destroyed FSR...so that Farrell doesn't have a job doesn't carry much weight with me. And SNR isn't any better. ESPN radio is going down, too. Satellite radio and the 'net has the big radio groups shaking in the boots...and that effect is being felt big time in sportstalk radio.
My viewing of Live8 on aol.com over the weekend kind of confirmed some of this stuff to me...the London shows were very different from the Philly shows. And how any American who watched Snoop do his bidness in London...and not be embarrassed...it is no wonder that the citizens of the world believe that black Americans are rapping and balling and pimping and killin'. Just to compare the self-centered Snoop, who ended his performance with 'what's my name, what's my name?'...with some of the other London performers, who clearly knew why they were there...it was shocking. Rap has that element of self-centeredness in its very core...and MTV's coverage of Live8 mimicked that self-centeredness as its hosts constantly interrupted performers with their own lame comments. It was unbelievably arrogant...but so is much of what passes for entertainment on MTV these days.
Finally...
Literally, guys like Larry Brown and Tony La Russa are oh-so-aware, in their own ways, of some of this stuff. There is a 'right way' to play 'the game', and Brown and La Russa are ever vigilant. Many D-1 coaches and professional coaches and managers, a few of whom I have spoken with about this very subject, feel strongly about this but are oh-so-aware of being branded as politically incorrect. Trashy rap, rap that glorifies self-centeredness, violence,degrades women and extols drug use...is oh-so-different from the occasional vague references to these topics in most other popular music.
So it is hard for me to see any great overlap of true rap, much of which is extremely self-centered, with sportstalk. Rap is not the right way to do sportstalk.
Let the battle begin...
First of all, I listened some to Farrell (sp?). He is different, but he is good.
Here's the deal. I want my sportstalk hosts to be (a) knowledgable; and (b) entertaining. As I listened to Farrell last night, he was both. In spades. The guy really does know sports. And he really is entertaining. And there's another component, too. (c) would be...I don't want sportstalk hosts to seem as if they're reaching...as if they're trying too hard. Farrell was not reaching last night. He was simply good. He knows radio as a medium, I think.
Now about rap. There is clearly an age-related dividing line here (35 and up aren't as rap-friendly?)...and probably a race-related dividing line, too (in some cases).
But I honestly do not believe that hard-core rap and sportstalk go together...as far as listeners are concerned...for reasons I'll try to explain below.
The absolutely worst thing to do, though, is for a host to try and bluff/fake his way through the rap thing. Andrew Siciliano is just a poser when it comes to rap...he is just awful awful awful...he doesn't get it and he never will and the phony way he tries to talk to Extravaganza callers about rap...click. Now, on the other hand, Petros P (1540 the Ticket), when he had the rap-off with Bruno...Petros gets it. He is a natural...and Bruno shouldn't have shut it down. No one expected Bruno to do as well...but the old guy tried some...and he knew he wasn't cool. So it was OK.
Bitterman Andrew thinks he is cool. And he is not. Bitterman took a liking to rap the same way that some high school pinheads join various clubs and volunteer on the occasional weekend at a hospital: to pad their college CV. Bitterman wanted street cred with blacks and black athletes. What a joke. It comes thru all the time that he is a poser rap-wise. Bitterman's efforts in these areas indicate that he doesn't get radio. And that Bitterman's bosses seem to ignore his deficiencies...well those are the same guys that literally destroyed FSR...so that Farrell doesn't have a job doesn't carry much weight with me. And SNR isn't any better. ESPN radio is going down, too. Satellite radio and the 'net has the big radio groups shaking in the boots...and that effect is being felt big time in sportstalk radio.
My viewing of Live8 on aol.com over the weekend kind of confirmed some of this stuff to me...the London shows were very different from the Philly shows. And how any American who watched Snoop do his bidness in London...and not be embarrassed...it is no wonder that the citizens of the world believe that black Americans are rapping and balling and pimping and killin'. Just to compare the self-centered Snoop, who ended his performance with 'what's my name, what's my name?'...with some of the other London performers, who clearly knew why they were there...it was shocking. Rap has that element of self-centeredness in its very core...and MTV's coverage of Live8 mimicked that self-centeredness as its hosts constantly interrupted performers with their own lame comments. It was unbelievably arrogant...but so is much of what passes for entertainment on MTV these days.
Finally...
Literally, guys like Larry Brown and Tony La Russa are oh-so-aware, in their own ways, of some of this stuff. There is a 'right way' to play 'the game', and Brown and La Russa are ever vigilant. Many D-1 coaches and professional coaches and managers, a few of whom I have spoken with about this very subject, feel strongly about this but are oh-so-aware of being branded as politically incorrect. Trashy rap, rap that glorifies self-centeredness, violence,degrades women and extols drug use...is oh-so-different from the occasional vague references to these topics in most other popular music.
So it is hard for me to see any great overlap of true rap, much of which is extremely self-centered, with sportstalk. Rap is not the right way to do sportstalk.
Let the battle begin...