All News format out, ESPN Radio takes over

This thread has me going all kinds of nostalgia.

 

Loved surfing the dial when I had long night drives when I was in the business, partly because many of the cars I owned only had AM radios. XTRA was a good pickup with Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton. Also KOMO (now KNWN) in Seattle. During football season, there was the late KDWN out of Las Vegas and the Landmark Tower Sports Review where they'd do a deep dive into the NFL lines. I mean like, 10 minutes on even the most routine game. KTWO broadcasting a high school football game between two Wyoming schools I'd never heard of. I could go on ...

Later, like much of radio before the right wing screech machine took over, it became too homogenized. Whatever stations weren't carrying Larry King were carrying Art Bell.

EDIT: Not to forget finding KOA or, when it was on the Rockies network, KTWO airing a Rockies game after a three-hour rain delay during monsoon season in the summer.

 

I can hear the TalkNet soothing theme music in my head right now ...

https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=bruce+williams+radio+show&sp=mAEA

 

To this day, I still can’t believe how bad Mike/Mike were on ESPN.
Absolutely unlistenable.
Back when we were talking to ESPN about getting on our stations, they said you had to air their show LIVE. That turned into a very short conversation.
I wouldn’t have put that krap on at 2am.

 

Talk radio. Absolutely unlistenable.

 

Pretty sure that ended up being the matchup when Tony Bruno had one of his many cases of self-immolation.

 

For a while there in the 90s you could spin the AM dial at night and get nothing but Bruce Williams and Art Bell. Occasionally you could find an overnight sports talk show or a local overnight host like Rick Barber on KOA.

RIP to all three, by the way.

 

Instead of parties, I would listen to AM radio. The farthest station I ever got was out of Edmonton, when I heard an Oilers game. I would also get KDKA out of Pittsburgh and WBT out of Charlotte.

Sirius XM is so much better than terrestrial radio in a lot of ways, including on long road trips.

 

One of my favorite lines was "Whoa, slow down there tiger." He also ran for mayor, or was elected mayor of his New Jersey town at some point. He could talk politics without being an ass.

 

Mayor or councilman, I forget which.

And he was a pilot who crashed his plane and survived it.

To this day, I live by his advice on using a lawyer whenever possible, like closing on a house. "When you have a tooth cavity, do you do it yourself, or use someone who is an expert and trained, like a dentist? Use a lawyer!"

 

When you get a good one, I sincerely hope you celebrate by doing a crotch chop.

 

At one point, WSB aired the Hawks. One night, Steve Holman called a game at Washington (then Bullets) and I heard him in the morning doing the damn sports report. Ran into him later and he admitted to being "weary." Who wouldn't be?
Think that would have been during Scott Slade's run.
A few years earlier, did a hit with WSB. Think the morning guy's name was Bobby Parker. Jeff Van Note was co-host. It was a hoot.
IIRC, Parker was a Canadian from Saskatchewan who ended up in Atlanta.