I never really got into reviewing local media when I was in WNY because I knew too many of the players and had a long history there myself. It just felt like I was going to be accused of bias one way or the other. If I said nice things about my friends than I was going easy on them, if I criticized people that I had some bad history with than I was venting my personal issues. No win, so I just avoided the issue.
Well, I have NO history in Richmond and I don’t know anybody. So I’ll occasionally add in a few thoughts on what’s going on around here.
I began with a lot of local sports radio for some reason. I listen to very little radio in this format in WNY. That’s probably because there aren’t many choices (WGR, Buffalo which I generally enjoyed). Here in Richmond there are two primary sports stations –
ESPN 950 AM/WXGI (which simulcasts with Sports Radio 100.5), the local ESPN outlet and Washington NFL network affiliate (more on that in a minute)
Sports Radio 910/WRNL, the local Fox Sports outlet.
There’s an upside and downside to both.
950 gets the nod for having some local personalities. 910 is entirely satellite shows as far as I can tell (Dan Patrick, JT the Brick, Jay Mohr – why is Jay Mohr still around? The least funny, most self centered personality in a universe FILLED with unfunny, self centered people). So if you’re looking for some locally oriented talk you go with 950. The problem for me is that the local air talent is not that good. Late mornings are the realm of “Sportsphone with Big Al” and afternoons are covered by “Hardly Working with Greg Burton”. ESPN’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning” cover 6-8 AM. Colin Cowherd, and SVP and Rusillo fill between Big Al and Burton.
Let’s start off by saying the names of the shows do very little for me. “Sportsphone” sounds like a refugee from ’80s radio. “Hardly Working”? Really? Most of us who have worked in the industry know that it feels like we’re hardly working but I don’t see how that makes the audience want to engage. It really sounds like it’s aimed at folks with nothing better to do. Now THAT’S excitement!
Big Al’s “shtick” is being a good old boy. Before everyone jumps down my throat, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. In fact, it can work quite well. Al likes to call all his callers “Hoss” and generally sound like one of the good guys to hang out with in the backyard or the local taphouse. The down side is that he sounds like he does about as much preparation as some guy in a bar. I’ve been listening for a month and it always sounds like the show just kind of wanders. Al never sounds like he’s got a goal or he’s going anywhere. Just whatever comes up. When you’re up against a polished, prepared program like Dan Patrick’s having a clearer concept of who you are and what you’re doing probably wouldn’t hurt. Afternoons with Burton are pretty much the same thing. There’s a bit more energy to the program but it still sounds like pretty good college radio. Not sports radio in the #55 market in the country. When the Washington NFL team had their camp in Richmond, 950 went live in mid-days from camp. The two announcers brought in for that definitely sounded like college radio level air talent. It was pretty sad. Knowing virtually nothing about the team I could have stepped in and done a better job.
Oh, and the whole team name issue? Fairly big deal around here and the ESPN 950 guys are firmly on the owner’s side about it. Not surprising since Dan Snyder owns the radio stations. Like the Washington DC market it appears that he is trying to control every aspect of how his team is presented. Didn’t hear a compelling argument during the entirety of training camp, just the usual tired nonsense. Have you figured out which side I’m on?
The presentation is much more polished top to bottom at WRNL, Sports Radio 910. On the local side they carry the local Class AA baseball team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels. They also carry football for Virginia Tech (as does the local News/Talk WRVA), which is pretty important in these parts. The problem is that it’s all network blahblahblah. Patrick is pretty good, Jay Mohr, well see above on that subject. There’s really nothing to get excited about here.
So what you’re left with is two really uninspiring sports/talk outlets. I’m not alone in that since neither station cracked the top 15 in the ratings(WRNL comes in at #16). By comparison, in Buffalo (the #56 market so a perfect comparison), WGR is #7 and WWKB is #11. Even with my issues with WGR they are head and shoulders above their counterparts here. A really well organized local radio station could make some serious headway here.
Guess I’ll keep listening.
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