All News format out, ESPN Radio takes over

Remember working in Central Illinois shortly after graduation - newly married, no kids and still had clueless optimism about what a noble pursuit journalism was.

I listened religiously to WSCR sports radio out of Chicago, when they only had a daytime license, so they went off the air by 6 p.m. or so. Mike North and Dan Jiggetts were the mid-day hosts, and they seemed so edgy when they'd say things like "You're a Jag-Bag" and segments called "Who You Crappin'?"

Mike Greenberg was there as a reporter, not even a host yet. He was actually tolerable then, which should tell you how long ago that was.

 

One of my weird career highlights was having my paper be the "sponsor" of the Daily Czabe. IIRC, it was one of the last FSR shows before they canned him to bring in Stephen A. Smith.

 

The early days of FSR was leaps and bounds better than anything ESPN was churning out, IMO. Bruno in the mornings, Czabe in the evenings and, before that, Bob Page. Bob Golic used to be part of an overnight show that was laugh out loud funny at times, proving one Golic was at least entertaining.

 

You’re old.

 

I've heard Jonathan Coachman on various sports networks since he left pro wrestling.

 

I remember listening to the national CBS News radio news report at 6 pm, followed by "Sports Central USA" sports roundup hosted by Ed Ingles on CBS 880.

 

WCBS used to simulcast 60 Minutes on Sunday evening. I’m not sure how many of the CBS O and O stations did that.

 

He’s now doing some PGA Tour coverage for ESPN+.

 

KRLD in Dallas, which is owned by Audacy and is not an O&O, still does that.

Tick tick tick tick .... the sound of a childhood weekend coming to a close.

They also rebroadcast the first 2 blocks of the CBS Evening News at 6 and 7:30 p.m.

 

There was a station in Atlanta that did the Top 10 List from Letterman the following day at noon.

The main station in my hometown was a legacy CBS affiliate and carried the full 15 minutes of World News Roundup each morning at 7.

 

I wish I sounded like Scottso

 

Glad WINS survived in its traditional format. My cousin, Stan Brooks, who was like a great uncle, was a reporter for WINS for close to 50 years. He passed away about a decade ago but worked almost right up to the end. Even though I'm not a New Yorker, I have a soft spot for that station. And as a teenager and college kid, whenever I used to visit NY, I'd spend a day going around with him as he covered his beat and recorded his segments. I went to press conferences with Ed Koch at City Hall. And on one crazy day in 1989, we went to the Trump Plaza to cover the Donald's unveiling of the Trump Shuttle (he was very obviously full of himself but he was funny and engaging and, when I met him, he was warm and personable) and then we went to Harlem where a federal prosecutor, Rudy Giuliani, who was running for mayor (he lost to David Dinkins), was giving a press conference on the steps of a crack house the feds had seized. I was just about 4 feet from him and something about him made me feel a real chill, like "This is NOT a good guy." Trump gave off a much different vibe at the time -- rich asshole celebrity who was kind of likable anyway. I hate him now. Anyway, Stan got to see it all.