Things You Miss In Sports

You think about how much damage deregulation has caused, but the top and bottom of the hour IDs are sacrosanct.

On another gripe - don't know how many times I've heard a broadcast miss the tip or first pitch because the radio network was still airing the intro with all of the sponsors names. You know the announcer is ready to punch a wall.

 

Anymore, with automation tones, stations often don't even have or need a board operator. Those that do, yeah, dead air often still happens.

 

Jim Healy's 15-minute radio show, which started at 5:30, often stretched well past that. And he had "the dreaded 6 o'clock tone."

 

Yep.
They still miss the :30 id about 90% of the time.

 

Yeah, I miss that too. And, from my days in San Diego in the 1990s, Lee Hamilton's first 15 minutes of the hour was always a must-listen for me. Before taking his calls, he would go through a summary of the top sports stories that day, with his own 2 cents on most of them. Hacksaw was quite a blowhard on his Mighty 690 show, but those 15 minutes were always good to find out what was happening in the sports world.

 

ditto

 

Someone mentioned an earlier era of the NFL draft. To me, there was nothing better than the two-day televised marathon with rounds 1, 2 and 3 on Saturday and the rest on Sunday.

I’d invite folks over (even back when I lived in a 450-square-foot efficiency), and we’d crack open the first beer and get the charcoal lit just before the first pick. Burgers and dogs would hit the grill around No. 10. We’d bs the Saturday away. Sunday was leftover grillins and chores around the house, with the late rounds in the background like golf.

 

Do you guys who keep saying so actually miss caring?

Seems like it becomes a badge of honor for sports writers not to care.

 

I miss when Tiger Woods was shitty. I hope he's shitty again this week.

 

There's a big difference between not caring who wins and not caring about sports.

 

Relatedly, I miss Junkie, who showed up at these parts again after a six-year absence, then got pissy and took his ball and went home after he found out some posters liked Tiger.

 

Then the internet came, and blew his schtick.

I heard MANY hours of Lee Hamilton.. probably as many as any person here. You have to give him credit, he covered ALL sports. I always laughed when he'd have a topic of the day... then someone would call up to talk Formula One, and before he'd end the call, he'd ask the caller what the caller thought of the main topic of the day - "What do you think of the new Chargers back up QB?" The guy called to talk about F1... had no idea about the Chargers QB. Great radio.

I still remember the caller who asked why 690/1090 didn't have any people of color on the station, while they had two hosts with speech impediments (Philly Billy Werndel, and the Coach, John Kentera). Hacksaw went into this lenghty speech about people of color not wanting to start at the bottom, that he worked in Idaho for years, etc. It was almost Campanis-like. Awesome radio.